Poland

Polish Real Estate Market
hard to estimate due to the fact that a
large amount of rental agreements are
not officially registered to avoid taxation.
According to official statistics in Poland less
than 5 out of 100 persons rent a flat. Rental
market is dominated by private investors
– and is developing – mainly in largest
cities, university cities and resort towns.
Institutional rental market hardly exists.
In 2014 appeared new initiative on Polish
residential market called Apartments
for Rent Fund. This commercial project
of institutional rental by BGK (Bank
Gospodarstwa Krajowego) aims to increase
market share of apartments for rent
available on attractive prices.The fund is
buying standing assets and development
projects for rent. Target markets are:
Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław, TriCity, Poznań,
Łódź, Katowice. The fund plan to rent fully
equipped flats on rental rate lower 20%-30%
comparing to regular market rental rate.
Planned investment scale is 5bn PLN and
aim to build ca 20,000 flats to let.
In Poland mainly developers deliver flats
in multifamily buildings. According to data
published by the Central Statistical Office,
over 147,710 units have been delivered in
2015 (3.2% more compared to the same
period of 2014), out of which 79,731
(54%) were constructed by individuals
and 62,448 (42,3%) by developers. The
remaining supply was delivered by housing
cooperatives and municipalities, whose
share remains marginal. There was a
significant – over 20,5% increase of building
permits issued in 2015 which for whole
Poland was 188,822. Comparing to 2014
also total number of constructions started
in 2015 increased at 13,7% reaching level
of 168,403.
The Polish residential market is presently
the largest in Central and Eastern Europe,
however, it still lags behind western EU
members in terms of quality, age of stock
and level of market saturation.
Moreover, statistical indicators, such as
number of residential units per 1,000
inhabitants, usable floor area per one
inhabitant and per average residential
unit, are below the European average.
Existing stock differs in terms of quality and
standard.
A major obstacle constraining housing
supply in Poland is mainly administrationdriven
and consists of the limited number
of zoning plans, covering below 30% of
country’s area. In each single case, lack of
zoning plan results in a time-consuming
administrative procedure, which takes from
a few months up to even a year. Assuming
that local spatial development plan was
not adopted it is necessary to obtain zoning
decision (Warunki Zabudowy) before the
building permit can be applied for. Current
trends observed are developing rental
market, student housing and senior housing.
Focus on Warsaw
Warsaw’s residential market remains
the most developed in Poland: demand
is driven mainly by in-migration, the
highest income level in Poland and the
lowest unemployment rate. Warsaw is
also popular location for shared services
and office market which influence
demand. Employment and education
possibilities in Warsaw are a magnet
for young people from other regions of
Poland, resulting in the dominance of
multifamily developments on the Warsaw
Poland. The real state of real estate | 25