Demand for well-prepared land, particularly for residential development in Poland’s largest cities, remains high. At the same time, investors are taking a much closer look at planning risks, infrastructure costs and realistic project delivery timelines.
As a result, we are seeing growing interest in projects managed by Greenfields under the “Lex Developer” procedure. Our applications for Housing Investment Location Resolutions (ULIM) are currently being processed for attractive, well-connected sites in Warsaw’s Targówek, Mokotów and Praga-Południe districts. Importantly, some clients are already expressing interest in acquiring these projects at an early stage of the process.
The key development affecting the market in the second half of 2026 remains the reform of Poland’s spatial planning system. The extension of the deadline for adopting general plans until 31 August 2026 gives local authorities additional time, while the market is preparing for the implementation of Integrated Investment Plans (ZPI). For our first clients, we are already preparing urban planning concepts as well as the planning, infrastructure and social justifications required to initiate these procedures.
In the residential segment, we continue to see the largest developers steadily expanding their land banks. For more than 10 years, we have been inviting them to participate in sales competitions organised by our Land Department. This formula gives our business partners access to properties that are not always widely marketed on the open market. It enables them to secure attractive sites at an early stage and complement their portfolios with projects aligned with their growth strategies.
Recently, we completed three sales competitions, with further processes already in preparation. A residential development comprising approximately 20,000 sqm of usable residential area (PUM) will be built on a site sold through a competitive process in Warsaw’s Bemowo district. Meanwhile, in Targówek Przemysłowy, an area gradually gaining importance as a new residential neighbourhood, approximately 350 apartments are planned on a property covered by another competition. Responding to growing investor interest in the Warsaw metropolitan area, we also sold a site in Otwock through a competitive process, designated for a project of more than 4,200 sqm PUM, where construction has already commenced.
Last year, we also conducted sales competitions for sites within the former Imperial Shipyard in Gdańsk and for a property in Warsaw’s Rembertów district. In the Rembertów project, we combined plots owned by three different entities, including private individuals and companies, into a single site with significantly greater investment potential. We then organised a sales competition for the property, allowing for the development of more than 6,000 sqm PUM.
The total planned usable residential area across projects covered by the sales competitions we conduct exceeds 50,000 sqm PUM. Increasingly, we are also analysing more complex sites: former industrial properties, service-use land, sites requiring a change of use, consolidation of several properties or clarification of their planning status.
Property owners also entrust us with sites intended for significantly larger-scale developments, including a project of more than 30,000 sqm PUM in Ursus and nearly 40,000 sqm PUM in Mokotów, where the winning bidder was selected only in the second round of the competition.
At the same time, we are observing growing interest in land designated for mixed-use developments and data centres, which are increasingly becoming an important part of the investment strategies of major market players.
In the second half of the year, we expect further market polarisation. Sites with a clear planning status will continue to command strong values, while properties carrying planning risks or requiring lengthy procedures will be subject to increasingly intense price negotiations. Investors who prepare their projects for the new planning environment now, rather than waiting for the reform to be completed, will gain a competitive advantage.
Landowners, particularly in municipalities surrounding Warsaw, still often have price expectations that do not reflect current market conditions. Developers, however, approach acquisitions far more pragmatically than they did several years ago. Investment decisions are now driven primarily by economic viability, taking into account construction costs, delivery timelines and planning risks. As a result, some negotiations end without a transaction being concluded.
In many cases, owners return to the negotiating table only later, acknowledging that maintaining excessive price expectations was a mistake. By then, however, it is often too late — the investor may already have acquired another property.
Reprinted from the article published in Property Insider: “Mid-Year 2026” – issue 27(259)/2026.
