The giant buys hundreds of apartments for rent. Should this make us happy or worry us?
A Swedish company that offers apartments for rent has purchased additional buildings in Kamionek and Siekierki. For those looking for an apartment to rent, this may be an option worth considering, but for buyers – not necessarily.
Heimstaden, the Swedish tycoon of apartments for rent, once again went shopping in Warsaw. In addition to the apartments he already owned in Służewiec, Praga and Wola, he also bought premises in Praga Południe and Siekierki. And we are not talking about individual apartments, but entire residential buildings.
Heimstaden is the third largest company of this type in Europe.
In Poland, this form of leasing is still in its infancy
As reported by Warsaw’s “Gazeta Wyborcza”, at the end of last year, in one investment alone, he paid PLN 300 million for 640 apartments. They will not be resold, but will be offered to customers who are looking for institutional long-term rental. In Poland, this form of using real estate is not common – we prefer to rent from private individuals. However, in the West, renting from specialized companies is very popular.
The tenant gains greater certainty about the premises: the contract is signed for a long time (abroad, it is not unusual to rent the same apartment for up to 20 years) and is sure that no one will remove him from it, for example because the owner’s grandson is returning from abroad. and he will need a place for himself – or the owners are selling the apartment because they need money.
In the case of institutional rentals, there is no such problem because everything is professionalized. On the other hand, the entry of large players into the market, who buy hundreds of apartments at random, is very beneficial from the developers’ point of view. Knowing that they can sell hundreds of apartments in bulk to the fund, they can raise prices for individual customers. Small buyers will never have such clout as, for example, the Swedish Heimstaden, which puts millions of zlotys on the table with a light hand.
Not only Heimstaden
The Swedish company is expanding not only in the capital.
– We acquire apartments not only in Warsaw. For the first time we will also enter Gdańsk, Kraków, Wrocław and Poznań – said Stanislav Kubácek, who heads the team in Heimstaden responsible for acquisitions in the Central and Eastern Europe region and Germany.
In an interview with Housemarket, he said this about his business model:
“We are long-term owners and active managers of our rental properties throughout Europe. We want to provide our tenants with what we call friendly homes. It is our own concept that aims to make customers feel at home thanks to high-quality service and other services, carefully selected amenities and compliance with ecological and sustainable standards of our activities.” – explained Kubácek.
Heimstaden is not the largest company offering institutional rentals. Apartments in this model have already been built in Warsaw by companies such as Resi4Rent, which recently opened its third investment in the capital and already has over a thousand apartments here, Aurec Capital and Zeitgeist AM.
