More and more Poles are buying real estate in Spain or in southern Italy. For an adequately wealthy Pole, such purchases have become something as normal as the purchase of another property in the immediate vicinity. Pandemic, war, rising inflation – these are the reasons why we enter the European real estate market with greater courage. “There are also many indications that this impulse will change into a constant trend in the coming years,” says Karolina Kaim, President of the Management Board of Sunshine by High Level.
Increased interest in foreign real estate could already be noticed two years ago. Customers tried to buy, they left, some of them stayed outside Poland. Others came back, but they liked this capital diversification. Instead of 10 venues in Warsaw, they now have 5 in Poland and 5 in the West. Where? “Where it’s warm and far away, but it’s best to get there by car without the help of a ferry,” explains Karolina Kaim, President of the Board of Sunshine by High Level.
Currently, the conversation with the client starts with the amount: I have 500,000 euro, I want to buy something. Why? I do not know. Where? I was thinking about Spain. Sometimes Portugal comes here, but much less often. This is the start of 8/10 talks. Only after a while we start looking specifically. But there are also clients, like my friend, who manage on their own. After returning from Spain, she announced to me “I bought a house, I have peace now,” says Karolina Kaim, president of Sunshine by High Level, a real estate expert with 30 years of experience.
As shown by the latest data from the snsh.pl portal, the increase in interest can be seen at all price levels, i.e. from 250-300 thousand euro to … in fact, there is no upper limit here. Above a million euros, the customer simply starts, usually not with the amount, but with the object of his dreams. In some places it is even a tenfold increase in queries compared to the first half of February 2022.
The KPMG report “The Luxury Goods Market in Poland” shows that between 2019 and 2020 only between 2019 and 2020 the assets of Poles kept in cash increased by 1/3. The president of snsh.pl says: “in luxury real estate, as in a crime fiction – you must have a motive and a tool.” The tool (money) appeared a little earlier, as you can see. In the last two years, there has been a theme, and even a few.
7% of Polish Europeans?
The KPMG report also provides a different value – by 2020 only 2% of Poles had real estate abroad. On the other hand, the analysis of the 2019 apartment house shows that 7% of us were already buying another apartment in Poland at that time. Will the first number catch up with the second? According to Karolina Kaim, it is not out of the question.
“We are on the verge of buying real estate abroad as if it were everyday shopping. It used to be a luxury reserved for the privileged, brave and wealthy, and now an increasing number of Poles are realizing what until recently was pure fantasy for them,” says the head of Sunshine by High Level.
No matter how wealthy your wallet is, money is always looking for one of two things, Kaim says, – an opportunity or a protection. At the moment, security is the first instinct, but more and more often it also persuades Poles to invest in a pragmatic manner, regardless of the current situation in the home country.
