An increasingly smaller piece of this floor. The creditworthiness of Poles is falling
“This piece of floor is mine” – who doesn’t know this phrase from Mr. Zoob’s song? May was another month in which the portion of the floor on credit is getting smaller and smaller. Why?
Adulthood begins when we find out what our creditworthiness is. In other words, what is the maximum amount the bank can lend in the form of a loan and under what conditions (e.g. interest rate or length of repayment period).
The relationship is simple: the higher your creditworthiness, the larger a loan (e.g. mortgage or cash loan) you can take out from a bank. The problem is that May is the third month in a row in 2026 when the creditworthiness of Poles decreased.
Poles in a creditworthiness trap. Small pool of apartments
Such conclusions are derived from the analysis of the offer of ten banks carried out by the RynekPierwotny.pl and Rankomat.pl portals. The conclusion is clear: a single person earning approximately PLN 6,000. PLN net he could count on nearly PLN 420,000 in May. PLN for a loan with a temporarily fixed interest rate – about 3%. less than in April.
In the case of a two-person household with approximately 8,000 PLN net, the decrease in creditworthiness was similar – to approximately PLN 543 thousand. PLN (by 3%). In the case of families with a child whose earnings are PLN 10,000. PLN net, creditworthiness decreased by approximately 5%. – up to approximately 641 thousand zloty.
What does this mean in practice? This means that there are fewer apartments on the market that you can even consider when planning to buy a flat, and those that exist often remain a dream.
The National Bank of Poland has confused the banks. The effect is felt by Poles
The number of affordable apartments for singles has decreased in all metropolises analyzed by the portals. In Łódź, the offer shrank by 5 percent, in Wrocław – by as much as 24 percent, and in Warsaw by 24 percent. The largest, amounting to 26%. a decline was recorded in Kraków.
In the case of childless couples, the situation has practically not changed in Łódź. In Warsaw, the number of available offers decreased by 10 percent, and in Wrocław by 13 percent. The largest decline (16%) concerns Kraków. The housing offer for families with children did not change in Poznań and Łódź, but in Warsaw it decreased by 8%, in Wrocław by 11%, and in Kraków by 14%.
There are also effects: the number of people applying for a housing loan decreased by one third. At the same time, the number of loans actually granted increased from approximately 28.7 thousand. to PLN 29.1 thousand, but this was probably because banks were finalizing previously submitted applications.
Why do banks demand more and more security for loans and credits? Because interest rates are rising instead of falling. And the greater the creditworthiness of those willing to buy apartments, the lower the risk of banks.
