Annual volume of leased floor-space in 2019 was 3.75 million sqm. The market grew by a record-breaking 2.8 million sqm while 1.9 million sqm of space is under construction.
Demand maintains astounding levels
At the end of 2019 gross take-up totalled an astounding 3.75 million sqm, making last year the second best in the market's history, and the fourth year in a row when gross demand exceeded 3 million sqm. Net demand, i.e. not taking into account renewals, totalled 2.6 million sqm. The most popular industrial locations were yet again The Big Five markets with Warsaw, Upper Silesia and Wrocław leading the way and accounting for 60% of space leased nationwide.
Tomasz Mika, Head of Industrial Poland, JLL
| Tenant | Park | Area (sqm) |
| Confidential | Hillwood BTS | 73,000 |
| BBK | Panattoni Park Gdańsk Airport | 68,500 |
| Pantos Logistics | Panattoni Park Wrocław XI | 60,500 |
| Pepsico | P3 Mszczonów | 58,500 |
| Raben | Prologis Ruda Śląska | 51,200 |
Source: JLL, www.warehousefinder, 2019
2019 as a whole was dominated by logistics operators, light manufacturers and retailers, with shares of 41%, 27% and 26%, respectively. What is worth underlining is the impressive activity of the light manufacturing sector, leasing over a quarter of total new demand in Poland. This is especially impressive given the reported downward trend in overall industrial production in Poland.
Maciej Kotowski, Consultant, Research and Consulting, JLL
Record new supply
Last year saw extremely high developer activity with the market expanding by a record 2.8 million sqm. Thanks to this, Poland was the second largest contributor to new logistics space in Europe in 2019, despite being only the eighth largest market in terms of existing stock. At the end of December 2019, total existing stock in Poland stood at 18.7 million sqm.
Tomasz Mika, Head of Industrial Poland, JLL
At the end of last year, there was still 1.9 million sqm under construction - 450,000 sqm in Upper Silesia, over 500,000 sqm in Warsaw, and 240,000 sqm in the Tri-City, which was the best result in the history of this market. Another significant trend in 2019 was speculative construction which stood at a relatively high 47%.
Maciej Kotowski, Consultant, Research and Consulting, JLL
Vacancy rates go up, rents remain stable
Investment market
The year-end total was lower than expected, which was due to more than one billion EUR of transactions being moved to 2020. However, this does not change the fact that it was a strong result - the second best in the history of the industrial market. The biggest 2019’ investment deal was the sale of the BARN portfolio by 7R/Hillwood to GLL Partners for 175 million EUR. The most active was capital from Germany, Korea, the United States and China.
Tomasz Puch, Head of Office and Industrial Investment, JLL
