Poland also known as Rzeczpospolita, whose troops reached Moscow or as the Polish People's Republic, symbolizing the Warsaw Pact and at the same time is called as the Republic of Poland, where every first is Catholic aspiring to European ideals. This country pretending to be the birthplace of vodka had seen and experienced a lot. But despite similar preferences with the Russians in beverages, Poland is one of the last places that come to mind when buying property abroad.
Nevertheless, not all is so sad and country little-known for the Russians has a number of advantages as well as disadvantages... It is a part of the European Union but all payments are in zlotys; a familiar language is heard but surrounded by Catholics; sea is closed but swimming impossible; the high-rise building of Stalin’s period are seen but not in Moscow; acquire a real estate, but without a residence permit .
Bird’s eye panorama of Warsaw
Warsaw is out of competition: the biggest and most expensive
And now more about real estate. Only few people know that it is high-quality and cheap in Poland. Of course, everything is relative. Look at the map of Europe: it is expensive to the north and west of Poland but cheaper to the south and east (Baltics are referred here). The average cost of apartment in Warsaw is about €2,000 per sq.m.
In March 2014 the bid price of a square in the capital amounted to PLN 8,352 (€1,999). Everything is stable: a month ago, it was only by 10 but a year ago by 24 zlotys cheaper. Studio and one-bedroom apartments are more expensive than the market average and 30 are sold for €60,600. Want a second room add additional €34,000, want a third room add another €32,300. Almost 60% of people are looking for apartments in Warsaw in the price range of €50,000-120,000.
Home on the lake in Warsaw
Polish "Berlin adjacent areas" – place where foreigners want to buy a property
If you think that the metropolitan housing is easy available, relax: in other Polish cities it is even cheaper, and in some by many times! For example, Gorzow Wielkopolski is quite cheap among the big cities. Quite a good option to move in: the sea is just 150 km away (water is warm in the summer!), Warsaw is located very far away, but it takes only three-hour drive to reach Berlin. The population counts 125,000, the sq.m is for €700. Polish "Berlin adjacent areas" can be really inexpensive.
By the way, Warsaw is not the most popular city in Poland among foreigners. At the themovechannel.com among the most popular requests is Krakow (23.3%) and the capital is only at the second place (22.4%). Wroclaw is located behind them (12.7%), while none of the other cities was not particularly interested for home buyers (no one else scored more than 5% of requests). Statistics of ee24.com confirms that foreigners (in our case – the Russians) prefer Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk and the ski resort of Zakopane.
Shopping street in Krakow
Krakow, Wroclaw and others: demand states the prices
Let's see for how many property owners in major Polish cities want to sell their homes. Krakow and Lodz are fighting for the title of the second most populous city in the country, both have approximately 750,000 inhabitants. But the price is quite different: in the touristic Krakow they are closer to the capital (€1500-1700 per sq.m), and in the industrial Lodz – to the level of small-town city (€900-1100 per sq.m). By the way, according to the searches, which were discussed above, foreigners are not absolutely interested in real estate in Lodz.
Fourth, fifth and sixth city in Poland are Wroclaw, Poznan and Gdansk. Wroclaw is lucky enough to be at the center of a circle passing through Warsaw, Krakow, Prague, Dresden and Berlin. Prices for apartments in Wroclaw are almost the same as ones in Krakow – €1400-1500 per sq.m. Poznan and Gdansk are at the same level.
Gdansk
Do not be misled by the latest Knight Frank report, where during the year by Q4 2013 residential real estate in Poland increased in price by 10.2%. Of course it depends on how you count and you can get a totally different data, but the Polish experts tend to talk about 2013 as the year of stagnation. In some cases prices increased by 2.1%, in others fell in the same range. Just look at the above example of Warsaw, where the price fell by 24 zlotys during the year (less than €6).
Of course, prices have not yet returned to pre-crisis positions. In Warsaw, for example, they reached €2,320 per sq.m and now are about €2,000. Focusing on the prices dynamics we can suppose that this year will repeat last year's situation and the real estate prices in cities in Poland will exchange within 3% plus or minus.
CBD of Warsaw
According to some ratings, the future of the Polish market is very promising. About 500 experts were examined in 15 European countries. 100% of respondents from Poland called real estate investments in their country as "attractive" or "extremely attractive". In France or Italy, for example, only about 60% of the experts were confident in local markets stability.
Buying commercial real estate in Poland is one of the most promising directions. This country has recently opened for the world market and its market is enough developed but without saturation yet. In 2013, the commercial real estate investments in Poland amounted €3,12 billion, breaking the record of 2007. It is expected that 2014 will be no less but probably even more productive.
Text: Alexander Fetyukov, ee24.com