Developing awareness

Property consultants Nowy Adres and market research group Millward Brown SMG/KRC have published a report on the best-known property developers in Warsaw, with research also done in Kraków, Poznań, Wrocław and Tri-city. The research showed that the best-known property developer in Warsaw is JW Construction, which 72 percent of respondents recognized and as many as 54 percent were able to offer without prompting. This reflects JW Construction's position as market leader in terms of number of apartments delivered - around 25,000.

The second best-known developer in Warsaw is Budimex Nieruchomości, according to the report, with 26 percent of respondents able to provide its name without prompting, and 45 percent recognizing it when prompted. Budimex Nieruchomości has delivered 3,500 apartments to the market, which is less than the company in third place, Dom Development, which has supplied 10,000.

Katarzyna Cyprynowska, the president of Nowy Adres, commented on the discrepancy, "You need to look at the results from 2001, when Budimex was in second place, and Dom Development was in seventh place. Dom Development has grown in the meantime, both in terms of the number of developments it has built, and its marketing. But Budimex has maintained its position in people's minds."

The size of the city also appears to determine people's awareness of property developers, or lack of it, Cyprynowska added.

"The city where people are most aware of developers is Warsaw, where, in 2007, only 23 percent of respondents could not think of the name of one developer. The city where there is the least awareness [out of the cities surveyed] was Wrocław, where 42 percent of respondents were unable to provide the name of one developer," she said.

Brendan Melck