Prices of apartments on the secondary market in Poland increased by 15.1 percent y/y in the first quarter of 2020, almost the most strongly in the EU, results from Eurostat data. Only Slovakia was slightly ahead of Poland in this respect (an increase of 15.4 percent y/y). New premises went up by 6.5 percent in the same period on annual basis

As Expander analysts wrote in their commentary, given these data, the coronavirus epidemic was a factor that probably prevented the emergence of a speculative bubble on the Polish real estate market.

In recent years, used flats in Poland have risen significantly faster than new ones. The first quarter of this year is the culmination of this phenomenon. The difference between the increase in prices of used and new flats was as much as 8.6 pp. and was the highest since Eurostat data are available.

This difference is even clearer in the long run. Over the past seven years, new home prices have risen by 25 percent, and used ones by as much as 43 percent.

Why did the prices of used apartments rise so much? First, many people started earning on so-called flipping, i.e. buying cheap premises, renovating and selling them at a much higher price. Besides, recently, more and more has been said about the advantages of old settlements over those currently being built. There are, inter alia, more green leisure space, availability of shops, schools and public transport.

(300gospodarka)