- In the second quarter of 2024, the retail market in Poland increased its resources by approximately 135,000. m of modern space, with the new supply including both the opening of new facilities and the expansion of existing ones.
- At the end of June, approximately 335,000 were under construction. sq m of new retail space and approximately 110,000 sq m. m2 of space, which included expansion of facilities or changes to their format.
- The highest saturation rates with modern retail space are consistently observed in the Wrocław and Poznań agglomerations, where they amount to 1,024 and 973 sq m/1,000 inhabitants, respectively, while the lowest in the Katowice conurbation and the Łódź agglomeration (723 sq m and 699 sq m, respectively). ./1000 inhabitants).
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A retail park with Biedronka being built in Nowa Ruda 
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A Warsaw shopping center has sold a plot of land for apartments. Transaction for PLN 20 million
In the second quarter of 2024, the Polish retail market welcomed three new brands, and all openings took place in Warsaw. The Luca bakery from Romania made its debut and chose the Polna Corner building as its first location. In turn, the new Ukrainian craft bar Veselka debuted in Browary Warszawskie, and the first Answear.com stationary store was opened in Fabryka Norblin .
Retail parks are still in demand
Between April and June 2024, nine new facilities, three extensions to existing facilities and three facility reconstructions were put into operation. Only one shopping center – Galeria Starówka in Leszno – increased its retail resources in this segment in the second quarter. In turn, Dekada in Grójec and the Nowa Górna retail park in Łódź were expanded (by 5,000 sq m and 3,000 sq m GLA, respectively). Three buildings of the former Tesco store were rebuilt, and in their place two retail parks were built in Bytom and one in Piła.
The retail park segment once again dominates in the opening of new facilities – they were built in Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Olsztyn, Świebodzin, Tychy, Zawiercie and Zgorzelec. In the second quarter of 2024, 3 retail park transactions were also registered, covering a total of 4 facilities, of which two transactions concerned facilities located in the Warsaw agglomeration (Łubna and Grodzisk Mazowiecki), and the remaining two transactions concerned retail parks in Kłodzko and Kępno. This type of asset is consistently perceived by investors as quite stable and safe.
Changes in the mature shopping mall market
As BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland experts emphasize, the modern retail market in Poland is constantly changing due to its maturity and saturation with commercial facilities. As a result, some shopping malls in Polish cities have already been demolished, others are waiting for demolition or their fate is in the balance.
– The main reasons for the demolition of commercial facilities were a decline in turnover and the number of customers or new investment plans of the owners of the facilities – says Fabrice Paumelle, director of the retail space department at BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland. – Galeria Malta in Poznań is currently being demolished, and apartments will probably be built in its place. In turn, in Wrocław, the demolition of Arkady Wrocławskie is scheduled to begin this year, and a modern office building with residential space is to be built in their place. Shopping centers will not disappear, although we will observe an increase in various types of activities – from re-commercialization, renovation and modernization, through expansions, reconstructions and changes in functions, to demolitions in order to regain land and implement new investments.
We have already observed the demolition of shopping malls in Warsaw (Jupiter Shopping Center), Kraków (Kraków Plaza), Katowice (CH Belg), and Sosnowiec (CH Sosnowiec). New apartments, offices, hotels and logistics parks are being built in their place.
Non-trading Sundays are a financial injection for discount stores
An aspect that may significantly affect the market is the announced liberalization of regulations on shopping Sundays. The bill providing for two commercial Sundays a month, double remuneration for work on these days and the need to grant a day off within 6 days before or 6 days after a working Sunday was adopted in the first reading. Now it will go to the substantive committees, where MPs will consider it and introduce any amendments.
As BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland analysts point out, contrary to the intentions of the 2018 legislator, the Sunday trading ban did not contribute to supporting small, local stores in their competition.
with large retail chains. According to data from the Central Statistical Office, at the end of 2018, the estimated number of stores was almost 340,000, while at the end of 2022, less than 326,000. This means that in space
In 4 years, the number of stores decreased by 14,000. branches. After the era of supermarkets and hypermarkets, discount stores and smaller formats became Poles' first choice stores.
– Recent years have been a period of prosperity for discount chains, which, thanks to an aggressive marketing and pricing strategy and long opening hours, have gained loyal customers. The current regulations prohibiting Sunday trading are full of arbitrary exemptions that may be a pretext for abuse, emphasize BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland experts.
Social selling – a new engaging trend in online sales
The share of e-commerce in retail sales in May was 8.6%. In the first half of the year, the level of e-commerce in individual months did not fall below 8%. The most popular online shopping categories are invariably press, books, textiles, clothing and footwear. BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland experts point out the increasing popularity of the trend of social commerce, i.e. sales via social media platforms.
– Using social commerce functions can give companies a competitive advantage in the world of e-commerce. Unlike popular marketing strategies, it is based on active action, attractive product presentation and expanding the recipient group, which contributes to increasing sales and building relationships with customers – comments Klaudia Okoń, senior consultant from the Business Intelligence Hub & Consultancy department of BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland .
