These are the apartments that Poles want. And they can afford them.

According to data from Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, as many as 41.1 thousand loans, or almost 46 percent of all granted, were used to finance the purchase of an apartment on the secondary market. After the expiry of the “Safe Credit 2%” program in January this year, sales of second-hand apartments dropped significantly, but their prices continued to rise. According to data from GetHome, it was only in May that sellers began to slow down. In July, the stabilization of the average price per square meter already covered all metropolises. However, over the last 12 months, apartment prices have skyrocketed.

Apartment prices: Up to 33 percent

The leader of the increases is the Upper Silesian-Zagłębie Metropolis, where the average price per square meter of used apartments increased by as much as 33 percent! In second and third place were Kraków and Wrocław, where prices increased by 26 percent and 19 percent, respectively. Łódź, Poznań and Warsaw noted a change of 15-17 percent. The smallest – 11 percent – increase in the average price per square meter of apartments on the secondary market was noted by GetHome.pl analysts in the Tri-City.

It is worth mentioning that despite the high price increases of second-hand apartments in the Katowice Agglomeration and Łódź, they still remain among the cheapest cities among all metropolises. This is due to the fact that the offer still includes a high share of apartments in PRL blocks and old tenement houses. And since there are more and more apartments built after 1989, the average price per square meter is also rising for this reason.

We can afford smaller and smaller apartments

The Gethome.pl portal expert points out that, as a result of price increases, the square footage of apartments available for purchase for a given amount has shrunk. The most expensive among the largest metropolises is Warsaw. At the end of July last year, the average price per square meter of apartments on offer here was just under PLN 15,600. So, for a 50-meter apartment, you had to pay an average of PLN 780,000. Currently, for this amount, you can buy a 43-meter apartment in the capital, which is 7 square meters smaller. In turn, in Krakow, buying a 50-meter apartment currently means an average expense of about PLN 183,000 higher than a year ago, and in Wrocław – by PLN 114,000.

Of course, individual metropolises have their own specifics when it comes to buyer preferences. In all of them, two-room apartments are the most popular. In Warsaw, Krakow, the Tri-City and Łódź, their share in sales increased this year, e.g. in Łódź from 48% to 50%. In Wrocław, it shrank from 39% to 37%. Interestingly, Wrocław was the only metropolis in the first half of the year where the percentage of four-room apartments increased. In turn, Kraków and Łódź stand out with the highest growth and share of studio apartments in sales. Perhaps investors targeted small apartments, e.g. with the intention of renting them out. In Łódź, four-room and larger apartments had the smallest share in sales of all cities. It is also worth noting that in Wrocław and the Tri-City, more of them were sold than studio apartments.