Prices of apartments on the secondary market in 16 provincial cities increased by 2-13% q/q in Q3 this year, according to GetHome.pl. Prices rose the least in Szczecin, and the most in Krakow.
“PLN 16,830 – this is how much you had to pay on average for a meter of used apartment in the capital at the end of the third quarter of this year. Warsaw is thus the leader in terms of housing prices in Poland. Over the past three months, prices here went up by as much as 11% on average. The leader of quarterly increases, however, is Krakow. In the capital of Lesser Poland, second-hand apartments have become more expensive by as much as 13%, and buyers have to reckon with the fact that they will pay an average of PLN 15,794 for a meter of their dream M,” according to the report.
The podium is closed by Gdansk, where the average price of a square meter of an apartment was PLN 14,483, it was stated.
As GetHome.pl expert Marek Wielgo explains, the main reason for such sharp increases is the cumulative demand in the housing market and the “2% Safe Credit” program, which added fuel to the fire.
Many people were holding off on buying an apartment due to a loss of creditworthiness. The government program has restored this ability for some of them. In addition, the purchase decision was accelerated by those who can afford an ordinary mortgage, but have no chance of subsidies from the state, as well as those with significant financial surpluses. Everyone was cheered by the fear that the supply of apartments would shrink and their prices would go up. And it was the combination of these demand groups that caused sales on the secondary and primary markets to shoot up in the third quarter, the offer to shrink sharply, and units to become heavily more expensive, it was reported.
Among the 16 provincial cities analyzed, in 11 the price per square meter did not exceed PLN 10,000. The cheapest used apartments could be found in Bydgoszcz (PLN 7,388 per sqm), Zielona Góra (PLN 7,428 per sqm) and Łódź (PLN 7,639 per sqm).
GetHome.pl also points out that in the third quarter of this year, apartments rose the slowest in price in Szczecin (+2%), Lublin and Zielona Gora (+3% each). The reason for this was lower demand in these locations and a relatively stable demand-supply situation in these markets.
2023 will definitely go down as a record year in terms of the increase in offer price rates in some cities. Over the past 12 months in Krakow, the average price per sqm increased by as much as 25%! Double-digit increases also took place in Opole (by 17%), Warsaw (by 16%) and Wroclaw (by 15%), among others. The least expensive for a year were used apartments in Zielona Gora – by an average of 2% per meter. On the other hand, in Lublin and Szczecin, the increase was ‘only’ 5%, it was announced.
Wielgo stressed that despite these increases, in the vast majority of the largest cities the average price per square meter of second-hand apartments is still lower than that of developer-owned ones. The exceptions are Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk and Zielona Gora, where one has to pay more per m2 for an apartment on the secondary market. Moreover, over the 12 months, new apartments generally rose in price faster than used ones.
Source: GetHome.pl and ISBNews
