Definitively suburban, and a premium price for seclusion
If it's suburbia that you're after, Podkowa Lesna may be the place. Located 30 kilometers west of downtown Warsaw, this quiet town of 3,000 residents is noted for its tree-lined streets, upscale homes and forested environs.
"It's a lovely place, there's no question about it," said Nick Evans, managing director of Villa Czarny Las development, a multi-unit residential site in a neighboring community.
Podkowa Lesna is off the beaten track and lacks space for development within the town proper. It boasts about 1,000 single-family homes, no industry, sparse services and a large forested area, which includes almost four hectares of nature reserve Parow Sojek. With that profile, properties here fetch $1,000 a square meter for completed homes, which is at the higher end of the property market for single-family homes in the Warsaw area, property watchers said.
Podkowa Lesna was established in the 1920s during the inter-war period and under Poland's newly found independence. The design was suburban and residential for the elite, a trait the town has maintained throughout the decades and amid political tempests.
Development here was initially spurred by construction of a commuter train, now called the Warsaw Commuter Railroad (WKD). The line, established by Sila i Swiatlo, featured trains running on 12-minute intervals linking Podkowa with downtown Warsaw. Because of the 30-kilometer commute and the lack of major road connections, Podkowa was an isolated community, but ideal for artists, politicians and business executives who lived outside the daily nine-to-five work routine. Probably the most famous Podkowa resident was 20th-century writer Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz.
Podkowa continues to attract high-end home owners who don't follow a strict timetable to Warsaw, an exercise that takes 40 minutes at best and easily one hour with traffic congestion. Wealthy people of more independent means are the main buyers in Podkowa, said Katarzyna Brzezinska, head of sales at Unikat real estate agency. Others here include families in which only one parent works and the well-to-do elderly and retired community, Brzezinska said.
Today's property profile includes about 25% pre-war buildings with services typical of suburbia, including minimum retail operations, elementary-level schools, a post office, a family-style restaurant, a cultural center and a museum dedicated to Iwaszkiewicz. Other than forested areas, further development of recreation and retail services is not on the drawing board due to the squeeze on available space, officials said. Most of the 400 hectares of available land has already been developed for residential purposes, they said.
On the open sites and those with existing buildings slated for demolition, typical lot sizes in Podkowa range from 1,500-3,000 square meters with land prices running up to $80 a square meter and $1,000 a square meter for completed homes. Thus, price tags in this bedroom community can easily run $250,000, high enough to discourage potential homeowners with limited pocketbooks.
A market for rental property is unlikely, but that is generally helpful to potential buyers of residences for own use, property watchers said.
As opposed to Warsaw's southern suburbs, there is not much rental interest in Podkowa due to the minimum 40-minute commute to the capital. "It's too far away for a rental market," said Janet Choynowski, managing director of Prime Property. The only foreigners interested in renting houses in Podkowa are executives working in the Sochaczew area, about 30 kilometers northwest of Podkowa, and 55 kilometers from Warsaw. Sochaczew is the site for manufacturing plants of many multinational companies, and Podkowa is the mid-point between the workplace and education centers for family members, market watchers said. "That's the compromise between work and school," Choynowski said. When executives for multinationals in Sochaczew drive westward to work, their children commute to British and American schools in the Warsaw area.
Because of the lack of interest in rental income here, the prices are lower than in other locations including the Warsaw suburb of Konstancin, a popular rental location for multinational business executives. In Konstancin, for example, rental rates exceed $6,000 a month for five-bedroom homes and land prices run up to $150 a square meter and up to double the price for completed homes compared to those in Podkowa.
Despite its lack of rental properties, Podkowa, however, isn't cheap, property watchers said. "This is the most expensive suburb west of Warsaw," said Brzezinska of Unikat. Land prices start at $40 per square meter but the prime plots, which are usually at least 2,000 square meters each, go for as high as $50-$80 per square meter, Brzezinska said. That's roughly comparable to Anin in the Praga Poludnie district in downtown Warsaw. Concerning existing homes in Podkowa, price tags generally run $800-$1,000 a square meter depending on lot and size of residence (See the Properties For Sale table on this page). That represents a minimum 50% discount to existing prices for homes in Anin or Konstancin, according to property agencies.
Podkowa's price tags are a benchmark that helps fuel business for Villa Czarny Las, the developer said. Czarny Las is building a multi-residential site of 50, and eventually up to 300, homes south of neighboring Grodzisk, about 15 kilometers or 10 minutes' drive southwest of Podko-wa. Czarny Las has set a price tag of $20 a square meter for land, and zl. 2,200 ($525) a square meter for completed homes, the developer said.
Town officials in Podkowa are not directing the property market, rather, sales are coming from individual property owners. However, town authorities have a limited number of properties for sale, notably the Kasyno palace built in 1925. The palace has 528 square meters of space and is located on a two-hectare lot, said Maria Gorska, promotion manager in Podkowa Lesna town authority. The palace, which is planned to be offered for sale, could be used as a hotel or restaurant site though town authorities have yet to decide on the issue of land use, Gorska said.
