Poles don't want large apartments? Surprising data

Poles are more and more willing to choose smaller apartments and plan compact houses. See how the new premises market changes.

According to the CSO data, in 2024 the average usable area of a private house from building permits fell by a record 3 sq m, reaching 138 sq m, however, the most emotions are caused by changes in the apartment market – especially the new ones. Experts from RynekPierwotny.pl have prepared an analysis for “Wprost”, which shows whether in the last three years limited credit capabilities have influenced the increase in the participation of developer apartments with a smaller area.

Small apartments up to 50 sq m.

Data from BIG Data RynekPierwotny.pl and Flt show how the popularity of smaller apartments has grown or decreased – both during high percentage of the NBP and earlier. The prepared chart shows how the participation of new apartments with an area of up to 50 sq m was shaped in the sale of developers from the largest cities in the period from November 2020 to June 2025. It is worth remembering that the presented data apply only to residential premises and do not include the sale of new houses.

As the expert explains, the usable area of 50 sq m. It was not accidentally chosen as a reference point for this analysis.

– It is a size similar to the average area of apartments sold in largest cities – both on the primary and secondary market. It can therefore be concluded that new premises of up to 50 sq m are smaller than the average area – explains Andrzej Prajsnar, expert of the RynekPierwotny.pl portal.

Sale of small apartments: boom, marginalization and stabilization

If you look at the chart more precisely, you can see that in mid -2022 smaller development apartments gained popularity, and later their importance fell slightly.

– This probably was related to a decrease in credit availability. He made some people try to “catch” the last opportunity to buy a new premises (even a small one) in the summer, and even early in autumn 2022. Later, the market focused on larger areas. From the spring of 2023, the share of sales of apartments of up to 50 sq m has become more stable, and the total sales of developers have never reached as low levels as in the second half of 2022. So small apartments were sold more in number – explains Andrzej Prajsnar.

Has the sale of small apartments increased?

If you look at the data from 2023–2024 and the first half of 2025, you can see that the share of sales of new apartments up to 50 sq m persists at a relatively stable level.

– We observe a similar phenomenon by analyzing statistics regarding only new premises with a usable area up to 30 sq m, i.e. de facto pieces. Interesting information from the largest markets confirm that simple sales hypotheses should be verified empirical – notes Prajsnar.

Why, then, do we not see a simple translation into sales data hypotheses with an increase in the importance of small apartments due to expensive loans?

According to the expert, an uncomplicated assumption regarding the high interest rate on housing loans as a factor increasing the sales share of smaller apartments does not take into account one issue.

– The increase in the interest rate on “mortgages” was so large that it effectively excluded a significant part of potential customers of development companies from the market – says Prajsnar.

He adds that exclusion concerned both potential borrowers who lost the opportunity to buy any new apartment (even studio apartments) and people waiting to improve creditworthiness and the possibility of purchasing an additional area.

– If 2022 did not bring such a large decrease in creditworthiness, paradoxically, the increase in the importance of small apartments could be more visible – says the expert.

Interest rate reduction and sale of small apartments

In the context of the above data, the question arises how further improvement in creditworthiness in 2025 will affect the structure of the area of sold apartments. As the expert notes, customers who could not afford to buy a small premises can return to the market.