Ukrainians are Massively Buying Apartments in Poland: They are Encouraged by a 2% Loan
Kyiv • UNN
Poland is recording an increase in apartment sales to foreigners, especially in large cities. Ukrainians are the leading buyers and are creating real estate agencies.
The number of apartment sales to foreigners is growing in Poland. Housing is bought mainly by Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians, Britons and Indians. Most often they choose housing in large cities. In addition, Ukrainians are increasingly trying to make money on Polish housing, creating intermediary real estate agencies and using the offers of Polish colleagues without their consent. This is reported by UNN with reference to Rzeczpospolita.
Details
According to the publication, sales of apartments purchased by foreigners in Poland are growing. For example, a record number of transactions were concluded last year – 17,330. A year earlier – more than 14 thousand.
Foreigners most often bought apartments in large cities such as Warsaw (3535 apartments), Krakow (1523) and Wroclaw (1491). In 2023, the purchase of real estate by foreigners accounted for approximately 6% of all sales, the publication says.
Given the fact that sales in 2024 have fallen, the share of foreigners as buyers may increase to just over 10%
Foreigners purchased the largest number of premises (residential and commercial) by area in the following voivodeships: Mazowieckie (508,133.89 sq. m), Lower Silesian (216,377.70 sq. m) and Małopolskie (123,837.27 sq. m). An analysis of the data from recent years shows that Warsaw is definitely the city where foreigners are most willing to buy premises
At the same time, statistics show that Ukrainians purchased the most apartments. There are also many buyers among citizens of Belarus, Russia, India, Great Britain and Vietnam. The average area of purchased real estate is 58.31 square meters.
Why large, but at the same time the most expensive, cities are popular
Foreigners most often buy apartments as an investment in order to earn money on them in the future. Also, often – they buy an apartment for themselves, because they plan to stay.
Foreigners most often buy apartments for investment in new residential areas. They want to make money on this, because Poland is a developing and future-oriented market. Although there is also a large group of foreigners who came here, have been living here for some time, want to settle here and therefore decide to buy an apartment for themselves
He also adds that apartments are more often bought for cash, without loans, because they believe that "Warsaw is cheap, because Kyiv, especially before the war, was more expensive."
According to the publication, emigration from Ukraine, which arrived in Poland after February 24, 2022, consists mostly of representatives of the middle class with good financial standing.
Half of the apartments in Poland were purchased without permission
The "Safe Credit 2%" program became an incentive to buy an apartment in Poland in 2023. 3,044 foreigners took advantage of it (4.7% of the total number of loans issued) – mainly citizens of Ukraine, who concluded 2,215 loan agreements. Another 492 were issued by Belarusians, 46 by citizens of India and 24 by Russians.
Purchases of apartments are also facilitated by the 1994 Law on the Purchase of Real Estate by Foreigners. They do not need to obtain a special permit to purchase if the apartment is intended for their own housing needs and is not located in the border area (Sopot, Gdańsk, Hel, Krynica Morska). At the same time, it is the Pomeranian Voivodeship, which is a border area, that foreigners most often choose, although they must apply for a permit.
Of the 527 residential and commercial premises owned by foreigners in 2024 with the permission of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, 364 premises were located in the Pomeranian Voivodeship
The impact of foreigners on the Polish real estate market
According to the publication, a large number of foreigners currently residing in Poland, especially citizens of Ukraine and Belarus (about 2 million), creates a significant market for rental and sale of real estate.
New intermediary agencies have appeared on the Polish market, run by citizens of Ukraine, who direct their offer mainly to clients from Eastern Europe. They often promote themselves through platforms such as Telegram. And there are reservations about them. They copy offers from Polish offices without consent or agreement.
We have encountered situations where a client from Eastern Europe turned out to be an agent who contacted the owner of our real estate offer without our knowledge and without prior agreement with us. This unfair practice creates difficulties for us