More and more empty old houses. This city is a leader

The last decades have dramatically changed the Polish real estate market. Those who remember Poland at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s have in mind, first of all, a great album and “double stories”. At the other extreme, there were old buildings, mainly pre-war properties. It seems that only Józef Balcerek, the hero of the cult series “Alternative 4”, did not want to exchange the apartment in them for a block of flats.

– Due to its complicated and often tragic history, Poland is not a country with a very old housing stock. Nevertheless, buildings that are 80-100 years old or even more still constitute an important element of many cities and even some villages (especially in the west of the country), notes Andrzej Prajsnar, an expert at RynekPierwotny.pl.

We examine pre-war properties

Together with experts from the RynekPierwotny.pl website, we decided to check whether and how the number of inhabited oldest houses and apartments in Poland has decreased over these three decades.

– Based on the results of the 1988 and 2021 censuses, we checked what part of the oldest housing stock was vacant during the Third Polish Republic. It turns out that we are talking about a large number of apartments in tenement houses, as well as houses that have been demolished or – unfortunately – are now vacant – explains Andrzej Prajsnar.

Can censuses that are distant in time be compared at all?

This is the first question that comes to mind. However, as the expert explains, the 1988 census is already distant in time, but at the same time very interesting because it is a kind of summary of the Polish People’s Republic.

– The mentioned census of population and housing took place not only in completely different political and economic realities, but also in administrative ones. This is a problem in the context of the administrative reform introduced at the end of the last century. However, it is worth knowing that the Central Statistical Office converted some of the results of the last census of the Polish People’s Republic into the later administrative division – notes Prajsnar.

He explains that thanks to this conversion, we can compare, for example, the number of the oldest inhabited premises and houses in 1988 and 2021.

– However, it should be remembered that the recalculated data from 1988 cover poviats as they were in force at the end of the last century. That is why in the ranking we see, for example, the Warsaw district instead of Warsaw as a city with district rights. It is also worth knowing that data from the end of the Polish People’s Republic present only the number of “apartments” according to the Central Statistical Office’s definition, i.e. residential premises and houses – without additional indication of the number of buildings. This is an important issue because one multi-family building contains at least several residential premises – explains the expert of the RynekPierwotny.pl website.

Post-German construction remains the best

Even before comparing the number of the oldest premises and houses from 1988 and 2021, the experts of the RynekPierwotny.pl website decided to present the Central Statistical Office data in a “building” approach (available for the last census).

– The cartogram below shows the number of inhabited residential buildings built before 1918 on a district scale five years ago. The results of the last census confirm what has been known for a long time. Namely, the old German buildings from western Poland have definitely resisted the passage of time the best – emphasizes Prajsnar.

He points out that a large number of inhabited buildings from before 1918 can be seen especially in southwestern Poland.

More than 1 million premises and houses were abandoned

Experts compared census data from 1988 and 2021. It turns out that nationwide, the number of inhabited houses and premises (not buildings) from before 1918 decreased by approximately 585,000. (up to 825 thousand). A similar numerical change (by 524,000, to 1.182 million) concerned slightly younger buildings erected in the years 1918–1944.

– Therefore, it is not difficult to calculate that in the period under study (1988–2021), the inhabited housing stock decreased by 1.1 million of the oldest premises and houses. However, we do not know what part of these ancient premises and houses was demolished, notes Prajsnar.

TOP 20 most deserted towns

Thanks to this thorough analysis, a list of cities and counties with the largest total decrease in the number of inhabited houses and premises from before 1945 was created. Here are the TOP 20:

• Łódź – a decrease of approximately 42,600 premises and houses (estimated change from 1988–2021)

• Warsaw – approximately 34,700

• Kraków – approximately 21,600

• Poznań – approximately 16,200

• Katowice – approximately 15,100

• Wrocław – approximately 15,100

• Szczecin – approximately 13,200

• Gdańsk – approximately 11,000

• Bytom – approximately 10,400

• Częstochowa – approximately 9,900

• Zabrze – approximately 8,800

• Bydgoszcz – approximately 8,800

• Sosnowiec – approximately 8,000

• Chorzów – approximately 7,900

• Lublin – approximately 7,800

• Ruda Śląska – approximately 7,500

• Poznań County – approximately 7,400

• Zgierz County – approximately 6,900

• Radom – approximately 6,800

• Białystok – approximately 6,300

Experts from the RynekPierwotny.pl portal point out that the list of twenty poviats and cities with the greatest loss of old housing stock includes not only large urban centers.

– Above we also see the Poznań district and the Zgierz district. In the case of these counties, losses of the oldest housing stock probably more often concerned single-family houses. However, this cannot be confirmed because there is no data from 1988 on the number of old inhabited residential buildings, Prajsnar sums up.