Which part of Poland is the most “homely”? There are almost no houses in this city

Which part of Poland is the most “homely”? The share of private houses in individual regions of the country ranges from only 3%. up to 97 percent all residential properties.

Such a large discrepancy became an inspiration to conduct a unique analysis of the popularity of single-family houses in different parts of Poland. The challenge was taken up for “Wprost” by experts from the RynekPierwotny.pl portal. The results clearly show where houses definitely outweigh apartments and how diverse the development structure is in the country.

Houses in Poland according to the Central Statistical Office and Eurostat

As experts point out, so far the topic of the popularity of various types of housing development has been commented on mainly in the context of Eurostat data.

– The mentioned institution states that approximately 58% of people live in houses. inhabitants of our country (result from 2024). The analogous percentage calculated for 2021, i.e. the time of the last census, was 55%. However, the Census data from the Central Statistical Office, after appropriate processing, indicate that private houses accounted for approximately 40% of the total population of the country. the entire inhabited housing stock (i.e. the number of houses and residential premises) – notes Andrzej Prajsnar, expert of the RynekPierwotny.pl portal.

Why the discrepancy between the reported results? Experts estimate that in homes, which constitute approximately 40 percent used housing stock, on average larger households live than in premises. As a result, after taking into account the number of inhabitants, houses outweigh apartments in Poland.

Houses in Poland – regional differences

The analysis shows the differences in the popularity of houses on the scale of counties and cities with county rights. The share of inhabited private houses in the total number of inhabited premises and houses (including private, cooperative, municipal, etc.) was taken into account, which allows for the elimination of, for example, empty houses in rural areas.

In typically rural counties, with a low level of urbanization and small towns, private houses constitute over 80-90%. the entire housing stock. Record results for 2021 were recorded in the following counties:

• Brzozów district – 91 percent

• Kielce poviat – 91 percent

• Rzeszów poviat – 91 percent

• Zamość County – 92 percent

• Krosno County – 92 percent

• Łomża poviat – 93 percent

• Skierniewice district – 94 percent

• Tarnów district – 95 percent

• Siedlce County – 96 percent

• Ostrołęka County – 97 percent

– Most “home” counties can be found in the eastern part of the country, which is related to the lower level of urbanization. In northern and western Poland, houses constitute a smaller part of the housing stock. Exceptions include: around Gdańsk, Poznań and Wrocław, where new single-family construction is flourishing – explains Andrzej Prajsnar.

Rzeszów is full of houses, and in Chorzów there are only apartments

Experts from the RynekPierwotny.pl website emphasize that significant differences in results also occur in cities with county rights, where the share of houses is naturally smaller due to the dominance of multi-family housing.

– However, it turns out that one city is not the same. Just look at Rzeszów, where in 2021 every fourth inhabited apartment was a private house, says Prajsnar.

A clearly higher share of private houses in cities with county rights was recorded in Bielsko-Biała (29%), Biała Podlaska (33%) and Krosno (35%).

In turn, the lowest percentage of houses was recorded in Chorzów (3%), Świętochłowice (5%) and Bytom (5%), followed by Warsaw with a result of about 7%. A slightly higher share of private houses in 2021 was recorded in Gdańsk (8%) and Łódź (9%), while in Kraków and Wrocław it was 10%, and in Poznań – 12%.

– It is worth noting that on the map of the country we can find districts with a low share of houses, around 20-30%. Examples include the Ełk poviat (22%), Kołobrzeg poviat (23%), Kętrzyn poviat (24%), Świdnica poviat in the province. Lower Silesia (24%) and Głogów (24%). In this case, we can also talk about the impact of the level of urbanization – notes an expert from the RynekPierwotny.pl portal.