British Polish Chamber of Commerce

REITs and the Polish real estate market - Wednesday 28 April, 10:00 - 11:15

The BPCC's Real Estate & Construction and Tax & Finance Policy Groups will meet for an online debate to discuss Real Estate Investment Trusts in Poland. Lack of REITs is a major reason why the ownership of modern commercial real estate in Poland is concentrated in the hands of foreign capital. Would the creation of vehicles for tax-deductable retail investment in commercial real estate developments in Poland attract new retail investors, thereby widening and deepening the market? Or would it have little or no impact?

Questions to be addressed include:

•    Is specific legislation actually required to create REITs?
•    Are there alternative ways of attracting retail investors into Polish commercial real estate, such as, for example, FinTech solutions?
•    Are tax breaks required to attract investors to REITs, or should historically-low interest rates be a sufficient incentive?

Many countries across the EU have had specific REITs legislation in place for many years; in some it has proved to be a double-edged sword, creating unsustainable bubbles in residential property development.
This meeting will also be open to representatives of banks and investment funds, to sound out their views as well as those of the developers, construction company and real-estate agents.

After a brief presentation setting out the current sitation regarding the possibility of REITs from CBRE's senior director of marketing and research, Joanna Mroczek, there will be an open roundtable debate to gather opinions which can be put forward to the Minister of Finance, Tadeusz Kościński, whose ministry is undertaking a review of Poland's capital markets in general.