In 2023, just over 14,300 apartments were acquired by foreigners, a figure slightly less than the previous year. According to the portal GetHome.pl, the majority were purchased by Ukrainian citizens. However, the fastest-growing group of foreign homebuyers in Poland are citizens of Belarus.
“Since Poland joined the EU, the number of residential transactions involving foreigners has consistently risen. We noted a decrease in interest in apartments during the COVID-affected year of 2022, but the following two years saw a substantial increase, which unexpectedly halted last year. It is evident that the war has cooled the enthusiasm of foreigners, especially citizens from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, for buying apartments in Poland,” says Marek Wielgo, an expert at GetHome.pl.
He reminds us that our housing market is almost entirely open to foreigners. Only the purchase of properties in border zones requires permission from the Ministry of Interior and Administration (MSWiA). This restriction includes areas like the Tri-City, Szczecin, Świnoujście, and Zakopane. Of course, EU citizens do not need such permission.
However, it is not them, but the Ukrainian citizens who are most keen on purchasing apartments in our country. It’s worth noting that this trend has continued since the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014. In the following years, Ukrainian citizens became the largest group of foreign apartment buyers, especially after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The MSWiA recorded a sharp increase in transactions involving Ukrainians.
Given the massive influx of refugees from that country, these transactions are still relatively few. The MSWiA reported that in 2023, Ukrainian citizens bought nearly 6,900 apartments in our country, only about 10% more than the previous year. To this number, we can add 263 premises acquired with permission in the border zone. The issue is that MSWiA does not specify how many of these are for commercial use and how many are residential.
“Last year, we noted that it would take more time before a significantly larger number of Ukrainian families, who will stay with us longer, could afford to buy an apartment. Especially since it involves a huge expenditure, and the interest rates on loans are still high,” comments Marek Wielgo. He also highlights a significant, nearly 46% increase in the number of residential transactions involving Ukrainian citizens. Last year, they became the owners of almost 2,000 premises, not counting those purchased with MSWiA permission (about 70). Meanwhile, fewer apartments than last year and two years ago were bought in Poland by Russian citizens. Moreover – it is worth noting – they did not receive a single approval for the purchase of an apartment in the border region.
According to the latest report from the MSWiA on the activity of foreigners in our real estate market, in 2023, people with foreign passports purchased 14,346 apartments and 2,545 commercial premises in our country. The latter was down by 17% from the previous year.
In terms of square footage, Ukrainians bought more apartments than citizens of the next 30 countries combined, including Germany, Belarus, Russia, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom. However, they bought significantly fewer apartments than the previous year.
Instead, citizens of India, Spain, and Turkey had a greater appetite for them. The first group began buying apartments in our country in 2005, that is, after our country joined the EU. However, for the past five years, they have been doing so more boldly, e.g., in 2023, they bought apartments with a total area of 10.2 thousand sq. m., placing them in the top ten countries whose citizens buy the most premises.
It is also clear that foreigners prefer to buy apartments where it is easiest to find a job, such as in Warsaw, Krakow, Wrocław, Łódź, and Poznań. However, in the capital, the MSWiA recorded a clear decline in transactions. There were also fewer transactions than the previous year in Wrocław, Poznań, and Łódź. However, there was an increased interest in apartments in Kraków and Gdańsk, where there were more residential transactions.
