Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa April/May 2019 | Page 44

REITS
Smart property plays in
Eastern Europe -Poland
leads the way
Growthpoint and Redefine look
to Poland for growth.
NEALE PETERSEN
P
oland is on an economic growth trajectory with a GDP
of more than 4,5% and growing, becoming the new key
investment location for SA listed REITs as major de-
mand picks up for office, warehousing and residential property.
Some of the largest office space in Europe has been taken up
in Poland with Amazon leading the way taking more than one
million square metres of office space in the capital Warsaw.
Redefine is investing in industrial properties in Poland along-
side key competitor Growthpoint. Both are delivering quality
properties in solid euro-based growth with good cash flow
and returns, that SA markets just cannot offer right now. Both
Redefine and Growthpoint are looking at increasing their in-
ternational footprint particularly in Poland right now for more
secure income growth.
Marc Wainer, Chairman of Redefine says Poland is delivering
exactly the opposite to what the SA assets are delivering now.
While Poland property is in demand, SA has an increase in
vacancies particularly in the office sector. Growthpoint has
only been investing for just over two years with 31 buildings
in Poland but are also upbeat about prospects of growing more
Poland investments going forward. A population in excess of
40 million people and high employment is driving a booming
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APRIL/MAY 2019 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine
economy – a starkly different place to 1990 when it was still
a Communist country. Both Growthpoint and Redefine are
seeking new strategic partners to invest.
Poland’s leading retail landlord, EPP, today announced
record results for its financial year ended 31 December 2018.
The JSE-listed company reported distributable earnings of
EUR96m, representing a 26% increase from the prior year.
EPP is the largest owner of retail property by gross lettable area
in Poland. The company introduced several new properties to
its portfolio during 2018, adding 54% to its total space, which
is now at 684,000m2 with vacancies of less than 1%.
‘EPP listed on the JSE has also experienced three
consecutive years of growth. We currently have 100 million
people visiting our shopping centres each year, and we look
forward to watching that number grow even further in 2019,’
said EPP CEO, Hadley Dean.