Airfields on the property market

Some of our readers, after perusing the offers in the pages of "Welcome to Poznań & Wielko- polska", have been phoning, in amazement, the Regional Airfields Department of the Army Property Agency in Warsaw, asking, with bated breath, whether it is true that the whole airfield is for sale! Yes, not only is it true, but it is also a real possibility and an exceptional opportunity.

Hence the need to provide those interested with some more information.

Airfields and airfield land appeared on the property market in 1998, when the Army Property Agency took them over from the National Defence ministry. Of course, these are airfields which the Ministry of National Defence considered super- fluous to the needs of the army and of national defence.

Airfields are a rare commodity on the property market, their supply is extremely limited and foreseeable, and they possess a low dependence on the activity of the property market. They are characterised by a high complexity of effective management.

It should be stressed that they constitute the property of the State Treasury, have no debts or credit liabilities, and may be bought and sold on the local, national or international market.

Today, it is possible to buy, through tender or negotiations, an entire airfield or geodetically divided plots, as well as to lease parts of the infrastructure, e.g. the fuel dump or hardened surfaces, or to hire the airfield for short-term mass events.

Due to their specific physical, economic and market characteristics, airfields possess a significant individual value as property, and are fundamentally different from other immovables. They are areas of a large, isolated extent, from 100-700 hectares. They have vast hardened areas, such as runways, taxiways, parking areas for airships and large grassy areas, which are generally well-maintained, and levelled areas, usually with drainage systems.

A distinctive characteristic is their unusual, specific buildings, inc. hangars, air terminals, navigational equipment installations, buildings and embankments for special structures such as bomb depots and rifle ranges.

A further exceptional attribute is the well-developed infrastructure of airfields - power networks, with multi-source supply, their own water intake, lighting and telecommunications networks, and drainage installations.

In spite of the huge capital outlay involved in investing in air activities and the management of airfields, the high investment risk, strong competition and relatively low level of capital returns, there are contracting parties who maintain that airfield property is worth the risk!

The fact that airfields are being brought onto the market and their effective management sought is also seen, from a wider perspective, notably as a factor in the re-generation of regional economies and the strengthening of Poland's economic ties with foreign markets.

Benedykt Trojanowski