A new city center in the making?
The latest Prestige.pl report on apartment prices in Warsaw shows that the highest price growth of some 35 percent was in the districts of Wola and Bielany. The list of other districts with rapidly increasing prices includes Włochy, Targówek and Praga Północ as well as Ursus.
"The average prices on the residential market grew by some 45 percent," says Magdalena Cicharska, managing director at Prestige.pl. "It's worth noting that location is not the only criterion that affects the growth of prices. Other factors are space, the number of apartments, the standard, and the general outlook of the apartments," she adds.
Wola-fied
Łukasz Madej from RedNet Property says that last year was very good for Wola. "The center is moving in that direction. Wola will still be attractive." Artur Pietraszewski from Reas Consulting shares Madej's opinion that Wola, with its new sky-scraping projects, such as the Hilton Hotel and Platinum Towers, which recently went on sale, will become a new and exclusive part of the city.
"Additionally, it will be greatly connected with the business center which is not near the Palace of Culture and Science, but closer to Al. Jana Pawła. There is a chance that the area will soon become the new city center," says Pietraszewski.
Madej says the Metro line increases the attractiveness of certain parts of the city. "With the Metro, Bielany will become very interesting," he adds.
The top spots
The report says that when it comes to location preference, Mokotów is in first place, then Ursynów, then Bemowo, and the fourth position is shared by Żoliborz and Białołęka, because there is more supply in these areas.
Reas Consulting's Pietraszewski says the list of the three top districts will not change this year: "The average price in Mokotów is influenced by a growing number of projects in the cheap and medium segments. That is why the growth of prices in Mokotów will not be that significant. Of course, we will still have pearls [worth] zł.20,000 per sqm."
Madej believes the higher prices will still be achieved in the ródmiecie district: "Everything that appears there has a price tag of over zł.20,000. There are even apartments where the price per sqm exceeds zł.30,000, such as Złota 44 or Powile and the prices will still go up."
Off the radar
According to Pietraszewski, the supply of apartments, especially those with medium prices, is influencing the tastes of future residents: "Ochota is a good example of that. The district has been on a low position since we ran out of plot reserves near ul. Maszynowa and Park Szczęliwicki. The situation will change after the new projects are launched in some two years."
RedNet's Madej believes that due to a large number of new apartments coming onto the market in certain areas, prices will not rise above the average rate in Bemowo, Wilanów and the industrial part of Żoliborz, where some 4,000 apartments will soon be available.
