According to “Office Occupier – Office Market in Regions”, a report published by real estate advisory firm Newmark Polska, during the first half of 2025, tenant demand hit an all-time high in Poland’s key regional city office markets (Kraków, Wrocław, Tricity, Katowice, Poznań, Łódź, Lublin, Szczecin), while new supply fell to a record low. At the end of June, the overall vacancy rate remained unchanged from the first quarter, with office availability in existing buildings totalling approximately 1.2 million sqm. Developers continue to show significant caution regarding new projects, resulting in a low office space being commenced.
At the end of June 2025, the combined office stock of Poland’s eight largest regional city markets, excluding Warsaw, stood at nearly 6.75 million sqm. With no new office completions in regional cities during the second quarter and only one completion of 2,400 sqm in Poznań in the three months to March 2025, new supply for the first half of the year dropped to its lowest on record. In addition, between January and June 2025, almost 41,000 sqm was removed from regional office stock due to the repurposing of some buildings. These included Katowice’s DL Craft, which will transform into a mixed-use complex featuring offices, a hotel and a medical clinic, and Wrocław’s Sky Tower, which will also accommodate a hotel.
“Due to high vacancy rates in existing office buildings, developers remain cautious about launching new projects. As a result, 2025’s new supply is forecast to fall to a record low. Just under 65,000 sqm of new office space is scheduled for completion by the end of the year, although up to 30% of this volume is likely to be deferred to 2026 due to a lack of pre-lets,” says Karol Wyka, Executive Board Director, Head of Office Department, Newmark Polska.
The office space under construction has remained at low but relatively steady levels for several quarters. At the end of June 2025, it stood at approximately 208,700 sqm, up more than 8% from the first quarter of 2025, but down over 2% year-on-year.
During the second quarter of 2025, leasing activity in the key regional office markets hit a record high of nearly 217,450 sqm, marking an increase of over 28% on the first quarter and 51% year-on-year.
“Gross take-up for the first half of 2025 reached 387,100 sqm, representing an increase of nearly 37% year-on-year and the strongest first-half performance in the history of the main regional cities. Kraków, Wrocław and Tricity accounted for almost 80% of the total leasing activity across the regions in the first half of the year,” adds Karol Wyka.
The average lease size for the period January-June 2025 was more than 1,100 sqm, marking an increase of around 10% compared with approximately 1,000 sqm in the same period in 2024. However, it is worth noting that the first six months of 2025 saw nearly 350 transactions, with almost 72% comprising new leases, pre-lets, expansions and owner-occupier deals. These averaged less than 650 sqm – clearly reflecting the continued strong occupier preference for offices of up to 1,000 sqm.
The sectors that generated most demand in the first half of 2025 were IT and professional services, which accounted for 24% and 17% of the total office take-up respectively. Manufacturing came third with 13%.
Broken down by transaction type, renegotiations and renewals continued to increase their share of the total regional office take-up in the second quarter of 2025, rising from 50% in the first quarter to over 65%. In the first half of 2025, renegotiations made up 58%, followed by new leases and relocations (32%). The remaining 10% came from expansions (6.5%), owner-occupier transactions (1%) and pre-lets (2.5%).
In the second quarter of 2025, the overall vacancy rate in Poland’s key regional cities remained unchanged from the previous quarter (17.5%), but was down 0.2 pp year-on-year. Total office availability in existing buildings has exceeded 1 million sqm since early 2023. At the end of June 2025, it stood at nearly 1.2 million sqm, with over 65% of that located in Kraków, Wrocław, and Katowice.
“Due to the high share of lease renewals and elevated vacancy rates, prime office rents remain under downward pressure in the key regional markets. In addition, office landlords are scaling up lease incentives to attract or retain tenants. At the end of June, rents for top-tier office space in regional cities stood at EUR 16.00-17.00/sqm/month,” comments Agnieszka Giermakowska, Research & Advisory Director, ESG Lead, Newmark Polska.
