Developer company Budimex Nieruchomości signed more pre-sale contracts in the first half of the year compared to 1H 2019. Sales are driven by high demand in major Polish cities.

“In the second quarter, we noticed a negative impact of the pandemic on the interest in apartments, which, however, does not change the fact that the first half of the year brought us a sales increase of over 11 percent,” Damian Kapitan, president of the management board of Budimex Nieruchomości, said.

“This result is the effect of the continued demand for apartments in the largest Polish cities. Thus, it confirms that this demand results to a large extent from the structural shortage of flats, estimated at approx. 2 million units,” he added.

JLL data shows that the first quarter was still a very good period for developers in the residential sector in terms of sales. In the six largest markets in Poland, they sold by 7 percent of real estate more than in the first quarter of 2019 and by 14 percent more than in the fourth quarter of 2019. This result was not much worse than the record-breaking fourth quarter of 2017, when the sale was supported by the government program Mieszkanie dla Młodych (A Flat For Young People).

Data for the second quarter of this year. not there yet, but developers have noticed lowered customer demand, some significantly. The list prepared by the analysts of the RynekPierwotny.pl website shows a collapse of sales statistics among development companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. In some cases, the drops exceeded 60 percent. Experts indicate, however, that the six-month results – due to the good first quarter – do not look so bad anymore, as the average decline is around 15 percent y/y, which seems to be a loss to be made up for in the coming months.

(Newseria)