Poles like to have their own. We are very different from the EU average, and he is light years away from the Germans.
87% of all households in our country are owner-occupied properties, while the EU average is 69%. In the leading European economy – Germany – owner-occupied apartments constitute only 47% of apartments on the market, informs the Polish Economic Institute.
It is no secret that Poles value owner-occupied apartments. Long-term leases, very popular in some European countries, have not caught on here. This is due to many factors, including the lack of well-developed institutional leases. Large companies renting apartments operate only in a few of the largest cities. The remaining properties are rented from private individuals. It is rare for a tenant to stay in an apartment for years. In addition, municipalities have a small rental offer: it is aimed only at people in a difficult situation who demonstrate a suitably low income per person and are patient, because you have to wait several years to be allocated a municipal apartment.
We own 87 percent of the apartments
Poland is among the leaders in Europe in terms of the number of owner-occupied apartments.
87% of all households are owner-occupied properties, while the EU average is 69%. In the leading European economy – Germany – they account for only 47%. This is reported by the Polish Economic Institute.
Such a large share of owner-occupied apartments results from, among other things, cultural patterns, lower urbanization of the country and the housing model typical of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
Only 13% of households rent, compared to the EU average of 31%. This percentage has remained at a similar level for about 15 years. In some European countries, such as Austria and Germany, almost half of the population lives in rented accommodation – 45.8% and 50.5% respectively.
Poles live in apartments on credit
The percentage of Poles living in apartments purchased without a loan is 75.3%. This is almost 4 percentage points higher than the average for the region and as much as 30 percentage points higher than the EU average.
On average, twice as many households in the EU than in Poland have a property purchased with a mortgage. In Poland, the percentage of households on credit is 12.0%, and in the EU – 24.6%. The percentage for Poland is close to the average for the region and has remained at a similar level for about 10 years. The reason for the lower share of apartments on credit is, among other things, the higher cost of credit in Poland than in the EU. For many years, Central and Eastern Europe has had higher interest rates than the euro countries, where the interest rate is set by the European Central Bank, and Poland has the highest interest rates on credits in the whole of Europe.
