Today, Thursday, 11 June, another edition of the Real Estate Market Forum begins, bringing together developers and experts from the property sector. One of the topics typically analysed by the industry is the so-called “housing gap”, meaning an attempt to estimate the shortage of homes in Poland. It is certainly not 2 million units. The deficit is much smaller, with estimates pointing to around 200,000–400,000 homes, but the shortage still exists. Experts from RynekPierwotny.pl emphasise that, despite this gap, Poland’s housing sector has made enormous progress over the 20 years of the country’s membership in the European Union.
Over the past two decades, 328 million sq m of new flats and houses have been built in Poland. That is 328 sq km, slightly more than the area of the city of Kraków. In which areas does Poland still lag behind other EU countries, and where does it perform better after years of intensive construction? Before answering that question, it is worth recalling a little history.
Poland’s difficult housing starting point after 1989
According to experts from RynekPierwotny.pl, when discussing the history of housing in Poland and its present-day consequences, one could go back as far as the pre-war period, when statistics related to overcrowding in flats and houses were very poor, even compared with the standards of Europe at that time. From today’s perspective, however, the beginning of the 1990s seems a much closer reference point. It was also the beginning of the housing history of the Third Polish Republic.
A comparison published by the United Nations in 1998 leaves no doubt that the housing situation at the start of the Third Polish Republic was difficult. Around 30 years ago, there were fewer than 300 flats and houses per 1,000 inhabitants in Poland. Among post-socialist countries, only Albania performed worse. The leaders of the former Eastern Bloc at the time, such as the Czech Republic and Estonia, recorded results close to 400 flats and houses per 1,000 people. Poland managed to exceed that level statistically only at the beginning of the current decade.
“In terms of living space per person and the number of households per flat or house, Poland 30 years ago looked worse than Slovakia, not to mention the Czech Republic and Hungary, which had a much better starting position after 1989,” notes Andrzej Prajsnar, expert at RynekPierwotny.pl.
Twenty years of catching up with the West
Andrzej Prajsnar stresses that the process of catching up in housing was slowed by the difficult economic situation at the beginning of this century. This was the period when the registered unemployment rate reached as much as 20%, in the years 2002–2004. In the context of housing, Poland’s accession to the European Union was also a turning point.
Twenty years ago, the first housing boom began. Apart from its negative aspects, it also helped achieve an impressive result. Between 2005 and 2024, new houses and flats with a total area of 327,628,216 sq m, or around 328 sq km, were completed. This area can be imagined as slightly more than the entire surface area of Kraków, which covers around 327 sq km.
The year 2022 was certainly exceptional, as all investors completed 22.0 million sq m of houses and flats. This was significantly more than in the record year of the Gierek decade, 1979, when 17.7 million sq m were completed. “It is worth checking how construction activity over the past 20 years has affected other indicators of the housing situation than those analysed so far,” comments Andrzej Prajsnar, expert at RynekPierwotny.pl.
Housing conditions as a problem: what do Poles say?
“When Poland joined the EU in 2004, we were at the very bottom in housing statistics. Since then, however, a great deal has changed in our country. Of course, there are statistics we can be proud of, but there are also those that do not reflect well on Poland,” says Marek Wielgo, expert at RynekPierwotny.pl.
The analyst adds that the extent to which housing needs are being met still leaves much to be desired. This is shown by research carried out by Habitat for Humanity Poland. According to its findings, the lack of a home or poor housing conditions are among the most frequently mentioned problems faced by Poles. Over the past two years, respondents complained more only about rising living costs, wages that do not keep pace with them, and the poorly functioning healthcare system.
Marek Wielgo points out, however, that previously the housing problem ranked third among the biggest social concerns in Poland. In addition, in 2015 it was mentioned by more than half of respondents, while this year it was indicated by fewer than one in four. This change suggests that the housing situation has improved quite clearly over the past 10 years.
Bathrooms and toilets: finally no reason for embarrassment in Europe
The standard of Polish housing has improved the most. The changes are particularly visible in rural areas, where EU subsidies for municipalities to build water supply and sewage systems led to an increase in the number of flats and houses equipped with modern sanitary facilities. These facilities are, in fact, a good measure of civilisational development.
According to Eurostat, in 2005 as many as 7% of Poland’s population, or nearly 2.7 million people, did not have a bath or shower and a flushing toilet in their flat or house. At that time, only residents of Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic states, which before 1990–1991 had been part of the USSR, were in a much worse situation.
The latest Eurostat data show that in 2023 only 0.5% of Poland’s population, or nearly 190,000 people, still lacked basic amenities such as a bath or shower and a flushing toilet. This share is similar to, or even lower than, in many Western European countries, including Italy and France. Among post-socialist countries, not only the previously mentioned Baltic states, Romania and Bulgaria performed worse in this respect, but also Hungary and Slovakia.
It should be stressed that both historical and latest Eurostat data are based on survey research, so they may differ from Statistics Poland data on the equipment of dwellings with sanitary facilities. However, Polish statistical data also show significant long-term improvement.
“This progress should be appreciated. According to Statistics Poland, at the end of the communist period around 12.7 million Polish women and men lived in substandard conditions. They occupied 3.5 million dwellings, meaning flats and houses, which accounted for every third dwelling existing at that time. In many villages, outdoor toilets, known in Poland as ‘sławojki’, were still common and often even treated as standard,” recalls Marek Wielgo.
Poles are investing in their flats and houses, and the effects are visible
The RynekPierwotny.pl expert adds that Poles have started investing in their flats and houses. This is also visible in Eurostat statistics, for example those concerning the technical condition of residential buildings. In 2005, more than 40% of Poland’s residents complained about damp. It is worth remembering that damp causes fungus and mould, which contribute to the spread of many diseases, including asthma and allergies, and may even play a role in the development of cancer.
Twenty years ago, the situation in no other EU country was as dramatic in this respect. What does it look like now? According to Eurostat, in 2023 fewer than 6% of Polish women and men lived in a residential building with a leaking roof, damp walls, floors or foundations, or rot in window frames or floors. A lower share of people complaining about damp was recorded only in Croatia, Finland and Sweden.
There are more extra rooms, but still not enough
Although Poland has caught up considerably in terms of housing conditions, in some respects the country is still far from the European leaders. One of the measures used by Eurostat is the indicator showing the number of rooms per resident in a given country. In Poland, there were around 1.2 rooms per person in 2024, compared with 1.0 in 2005. This remains one of the weakest results in the entire EU, where the average is 1.7 rooms per person. The situation is worse than, or similar to, Poland’s in Romania, Slovakia and Latvia.
