Does general access to the Property Price Register, which shows actual transaction prices for newly purchased apartments, affect the pricing policies of developers? Are buyers of newly built homes interested in monitoring transaction price levels? The survey was prepared by the real estate portal dompress.pl.
Tomasz Kaleta, Managing Director for Sales and Marketing at Develia
The introduction of free access to the Property Price Register is a step toward greater market transparency, although for now its interpretive value remains limited. The system still does not include complete data, and both the scope and availability of information vary by location. In addition, the register publishes prices from notarized deeds. In the case of the primary market, this means transactions that are often finalized one or even two years after the developer agreement is signed, so the data presented does not always reflect the current price situation on the market.
From the customer’s perspective, current information about specific projects is more important today — above all, transparent apartment prices, unit availability, and sales pace, all of which make it possible to realistically assess the attractiveness of an offer.
Agnieszka Majkusiak, General Director for Sales and Marketing at Atal
The prices of developer-built apartments are shaped by objective factors, above all the costs of land acquisition and construction, rather than by broader or narrower access to information about offers and historical transactions. The standard of a given development is also a key issue.
We have long presented our offer and apartment prices transparently, even before regulations required us to do so. So this change is not particularly significant for us; it simply gives customers an even easier overview of the market, which is a good standard.
Under the current RCN reporting model, many important parameters of a purchased property will not be visible. This may lead to incorrect conclusions. Two apartments in the same estate, one purchased with two parking spaces and a storage unit and the other without any additional components, will look completely different in terms of price per square meter. Individual features of the apartments also matter, such as sun exposure, floor level, view, and the technical solutions used in the building.
Another issue is the delay resulting from the fact that many purchases made a year or even two years ago are not yet visible in the registers, because ownership titles for those apartments are only now being transferred, or will be transferred in the future.
Just as was the case with the introduction of mandatory public listing prices last year, nothing currently suggests that the new Property Price Register rules will have a significant effect on developers’ pricing strategies. There are simply many more important variables determining market conditions, companies’ pricing policies, and the overall supply-demand balance. The regulation is new, so it is still difficult to assess the extent to which customers buying apartments on the primary market are actually using transaction data.
Mariusz Gajżewski, Head of Sales, Marketing and Communication, BPI Real Estate Poland
Greater transparency in the real estate market is a natural direction of development. Access to actual transaction prices may help customers better understand how prices are formed and make more informed purchasing decisions. From a developer’s perspective, however, I believe pricing policy is always based on many factors, such as location, quality standard, project delivery costs, and demand.
Public access to transaction data can be one additional point of reference, but it does not change the fact that every development has its own characteristics and unique value. At the same time, we can see that customers are becoming increasingly aware and more often analyze market data before making a purchase decision. I believe this is a positive trend that supports greater transparency and professionalism in the market.
Renata Mc Cabe-Kudla, Country Manager at Grupo Lar Polska
The Property Price Register is a very interesting tool, but it only shows apartment prices and provides no information whatsoever about the quality of the apartment. So there is no information about layout or finishing standard. It helps provide a sense of average prices in a given location. It has no impact on our company’s pricing policy. We set prices based on land costs, construction costs, related costs, and we assess each apartment and parking space individually. I do not know whether customers are interested in monitoring transaction rates, but I do not believe the register will affect what market prices will be — those still depend on costs.
Joanna Chojecka, Sales and Marketing Director for Warsaw, Wrocław and Łódź at the Robyg Group
The launch of the free Property Price Register is a step toward greater market transparency. From our perspective, however, it does not mean a revolution in pricing policy. We set apartment prices based on very detailed market analysis — actual transactions, the level of demand, competing supply, project delivery costs, and sales pace. Public access to transaction data can only help organize and standardize this process for all market participants.
Greater transparency will certainly influence customer expectations. We are observing that buyers are better prepared for discussions, analyze asking prices, and compare developments in a given location. Access to actual transaction prices may reinforce this trend. At the same time, it is worth emphasizing that price is only one element of a purchase decision. Customers also consider the standard of the development, location, quality of common areas, and the developer’s reputation. That is why we view data transparency more as an element of market professionalization than as a factor that would significantly limit the ability to shape sales policy flexibly.
Kamil Rutkowski, President of the Management Board, Rutkowski Group
From our perspective, making actual sales price data available has not had a significant impact on pricing policy or sales dynamics. From the outset, we have based it on the real costs of delivering developments, analysis of the local market, and the value offered by a given property. Price transparency has not changed those foundations.
We also do not observe that access to the register creates difficulties in conversations with customers. Of course, some people analyze transaction data and compare offers, which is natural in the case of such an important financial decision. In practice, however, customers pay attention not only to the price per square meter, but to the overall project — quality of workmanship, the developer’s credibility, the surroundings, and the potential of a given location.
Witold Kikolski, Member of the Management Board, MS Waryński Development S.A.
Widespread access to transaction price data undoubtedly increases market transparency, but it does not fundamentally affect our pricing strategy. For years, we have set prices based on the actual costs of project delivery, an analysis of supply and demand, and the competitiveness of the offer in a given location. Data transparency therefore represents more a reinforcement of existing market mechanisms than a factor changing our approach.
We do notice growing customer interest in transaction data, which means that transparency and justification of the price level are becoming even more important. In the longer term, greater transparency supports the professionalization of the market, limits speculative expectations, and encourages rational purchasing decisions.
Monika Kudełko, Director of Strategy and Marketing Communication at Activ Investment
The introduction of the Property Price Register has no impact on our pricing policy. For nearly 30 years, the foundation of our business has been fair valuation based on the real value of an investment, not on short-term fluctuations or market speculation. Our customers are aware and expect transparency, which we fully support. The register only reinforces their belief that our rates are adequate to the quality we deliver. For us, transparency is a standard, which is why disclosure of prices only strengthens the credibility of our strategy, confirming that our buyers have been investing in reliable value for more than 30 years.
Damian Tomasik, President of Alter Investment
I do not believe that the introduction of the Property Price Register will significantly affect companies’ pricing policies or the market itself. The real estate market, like any other, is regulated in the long run primarily by the laws of supply and demand, not by access to price registers.
Of course, greater data transparency may be helpful for some buyers or investors, but in practice professionals operating in the market have been analyzing actual transaction prices for years anyway.
From the market’s perspective, a much greater challenge than the lack of such data is legal instability and inconsistent interpretation of regulations. It is precisely this regulatory volatility, which accompanies investments throughout several years of preparation, that largely affects project execution risk and, consequently, property prices as well.
Andrzej Gutowski, Sales Director at Ronson Development
Apartment prices were already visible to customers who directly compared offers in similar locations or districts, under the newly introduced law. As for the monitoring of transaction rates by potential buyers, we do not really see much interest. The Property Price Register contains such a vast amount of data that it is difficult to draw conclusions from it without very thorough analysis. There are, however, companies that will create reports making this information easier for individual users to use.
We support open communication in sales, so we view this move as a step in the right direction. An individual customer will probably not benefit directly from the register itself, but if in the future it allows the market to be better informed and supports buyers’ decisions, then it is definitely a positive development.
Anita Makowska, Senior Business Analyst at Archicom
Making data from the Property Price Register public is an important step toward greater market transparency. Access to actual transaction prices supports a more substantive dialogue between developers and customers and helps reduce the myths about price levels that have so far functioned in the market. From our perspective, it is a tool that brings order to the discussion about property value, because both sides can refer to real market data. We do not assume, however, that the introduction of the register will directly change our pricing policy.
The pricing of apartments in developer projects is based primarily on hard cost factors, such as land prices, construction and material costs, regulatory requirements, and the operating costs of delivering an investment. Data from the register may serve as an additional source of market information, but it will not replace the analytical pricing models used by large development companies. At the same time, our observations show that customers are increasingly interested in market data and compare offers based on available information. In practice, this means more informed purchasing decisions and greater importance of transparent communication. That is why, in the sales process, we emphasize the role of advisors who support customers in interpreting market data and help them assess the actual value of a specific property in a given location. In this sense, access to the register can positively affect the level of trust in the market, because it increases the transparency of the home-buying process.
Andrzej Swoboda, Vice President of the Management Board, CTE Group
Making the Property Price Register available free of charge increases market transparency, but in practice it is difficult to expect this to have a significant impact on how professional developers set prices. In the case of new apartments, prices have been public and available to customers in sales materials from the outset, so the primary market already operates under fairly transparent conditions.
In our view, the register may above all be an interesting source of knowledge about the market, especially for people analyzing transactions on the secondary market. In the case of the development market, however, prices result mainly from project delivery costs, land prices, financing costs, and the supply-demand situation, not from limited access to data. It is also worth emphasizing that reliable developers do not use pricing “tricks.” Customers receive clear information about the apartment price and all purchase-related costs. That is why greater availability of transaction data does not change the rules of pricing policy; rather, it confirms what the market can already see in the offers.
As for customers, some of them are indeed interested in market data, but in practice, when making a purchase decision, location, development standard, apartment layout, and total financing cost matter much more than a detailed analysis of transaction statistics.
Marcin Michalec, Managing Director, Okam Capital
The launch of the free DOM Portal and the Property Price Register is a step toward full market transparency, something analysts have been calling for for years. In our experience, buyers are eager to use information about actual transaction prices in order to better estimate market value and gain negotiating arguments. For the company, however, this does not mean a revolution in pricing policy. Our prices have always reflected the real costs of construction, land acquisition, and the high standard of our products. Transparency works to our advantage, because objective market data proves that the valuation of our projects is appropriate to their quality and location.
