More than one-quarter of Poland’s population falls into the so-called “rent gap” – earning too little to rent or buy a home on the commercial market, yet too much to qualify for state housing support, according to data from Habitat for Humanity. It is this group the Polish government aims to focus on, with a record housing support budget earmarked for next year.
“Housing needs are enormous. The government is prioritizing those who were overlooked by previous administrations – people in the ‘rent gap’: too wealthy for municipal housing, but too poor to afford commercial rent or home purchase. This is a vast group – an estimated four million families who cannot afford housing that meets their needs and ambitions,”
says Tomasz Lewandowski, Deputy Secretary of State at the Ministry of Development and Technology, in an interview with Newseria during the conference “Housing Policy – Funds and Technologies: What Municipalities Need to Develop Social and Communal Housing,” held in the Polish Parliament on November 5.
Poland is currently short between 500,000 and 2 million housing units, depending on estimates. According to Habitat for Humanity’s report Housing Situation in Poland 2025, the share of people living in their own home fell from 65% to 60% in just three years. During the same period, the share of renters and those living with family or friends increased. One in five Poles lives in housing that fails to meet basic needs, while 10% are forced to share space with people they don’t want to live with. Only one-third of Poles say they have no housing-related issues.
To address this, the government is promising expanded support for social and public rental housing.
“All our housing programs prioritize the development of public and social rental housing, mainly in the form of municipal rentals. For those with lower incomes, especially those in the rent gap, the key tools will be social housing and co-op rental schemes,”
Lewandowski explains.
“We haven’t forgotten about people determined to own their own home. A new program will support social ownership housing delivered by public operators such as SIMs (Social Housing Initiatives), TBS (Social Building Societies), and housing cooperatives, financed with support from the Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK).”
Record-Breaking Housing Budget for 2026
The draft 2026 budget allocates a record 8.7 billion PLN for housing, including 6.7 billion PLN from domestic funds. This is 2 billion PLN more than in 2025 and nearly double the combined housing expenditure of 2020–2023. Over 4 billion PLN will go to non-repayable support for social and municipal housing—covering the construction of affordable rental units, municipal flats, and student dormitories.
The budget includes financing for interest-rate subsidies on housing loans issued under the public rental housing scheme administered by BGK. The bank reports that more than 110,000 rental units have already been built with its financing tools. The scale of support continues to grow year over year.
“We offer long-term preferential loans—up to 30 years and 80% of total investment value—on very favorable terms: WIBOR rate without any bank margin for the first five years and a fixed rate of 2% afterward. Next year, over 2 billion PLN will be allocated in new loan actions,”
says Dariusz Stachera, Director of Housing Credit Programs at BGK.
Funding is also helping smaller towns build affordable housing to retain residents. One example is the town of Kamienna Góra in Lower Silesia, which uses social housing to attract and retain young workers.
“We’ve made housing the priority of our investment strategy. We currently have nearly 200 units under development, with more than 1,500 TBS units already in place across the area. As local government revenues become more constrained, municipalities will compete more fiercely for residents, so we’re taking action now,”
says Paweł Fryc, Deputy Mayor of Kamienna Góra.
Modular Construction: A Fast, High-Quality Solution
Industry experts are increasingly pointing to modular construction as a key tool to solve Poland’s housing shortage. Prefabricated modules are manufactured in controlled factory environments—ensuring high-quality standards and cutting construction time by up to 50%. This makes modular technology particularly suitable for affordable rental housing projects.
“Modular construction seems ideal for social and municipal housing. It reduces the cost and complexity of supervision, as the entire project can be built in just a few months, compared to years under traditional construction,”
notes Henryk Kwapisz, President of the Polish Gypsum Association.
While the private market still favors traditional methods, energy-efficient and cost-effective prefab buildings are gaining traction.
“Prefab technology offers tremendous benefits—high energy performance, lower costs, and faster delivery. Now it’s up to the producers to win over investors,”
adds Lewandowski.
With growing financial support, evolving legal frameworks, and emerging technologies, Poland is taking steps to ensure that access to affordable, high-quality housing becomes a reality for millions of its citizens caught in the rent gap.
