Speedwell said in a press release that the expansion follows the acquisition of a 2,290 square metre plot of land in Warsaw jointly owned by BPI Real Estate Poland and Aktīm for an undisclosed amount.
The site will house Poland's first purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) project. The seller is preparing building permits and concepts, and Speedwell expects to begin construction in Q1 2025 with completion prior to the start of the 2026-2027 academic year.
Located in Warsaw’s popular district of Mokotów, the student housing unit will accommodate around 600 beds and address the need for quality student accommodation in the Polish capital.
“We have ambitious plans to acquire a project portfolio in Poland of the same size as our Romanian portfolio. […] “Our primary acquisition targets include a range of asset classes, including houses for sale both in Warsaw and the regional city, apartments for rent, student accommodation, office space and industrial properties. We believe in the potential of the Polish market and the wider Central and Eastern European region,” said Didier Barkan, co-founder of Speedwell.
BPI Real Estate is part of the multidisciplinary CFE Group, a real estate development company operating in Belgium, Poland and Luxembourg. The Acteeum Group, a private international company based in Poland, manages the entire real estate development process, from site selection to design, construction, commercialization, management and sales.
Speedwell has been present in the Romanian market for 10 years and its portfolio includes approximately 150,000 square metres of office and retail space, more than 6,000 apartments and the first 23,000 square metres of “SpacePLus”, high-quality industrial space for SMEs, with a total portfolio value estimated at approximately €1.5 billion.
In April 2024, Belgian property developers Baltis and Straco announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Speedwell. The two Belgian companies said they would help Speedwell expand its Romanian operations and enter the Polish market.