Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

x2 in some outskirt areas, x3 in many areas, and after that any price up to several million.

Somewhere that had been for sale for over 1000 days (at what price I don't know) sold just 10 days after I requested a viewing. The usual agency disinterest meant that it took several communications to even get one of the agents to phone back. When he called, he didn't speak English, and my Polish helper was not available. He just hung up. No English speaker ever called back. This was a large, national firm. The next day, the place was sold! Yes after over 1000 days on the market. I assume that it must have recently been reduced in price for it to come on to my radar and that of the successful buyer.

A quick check at the same agency website (a large national company with a website in English and Polish) shows that about 1 in 100 listings are sold, with selling times of 130 to 1100 days, mostly 200 days or more. The thing to do is keep an eye on the prices and selling times, to try to detect if the secondary (used) market is picking up.

Another thing is an increasing number of agents are not charging a buyer fees but most still do. I advise voting with your feet and not using agents who charge buyers unless the property is cheaper anyway. (When it comes to rentals, the 1 or agents that don't charge tenants a fee sometimes have the property advertised at a higher price, however.)

Spoke to an agent, perhaps unsurprisingly he said "Agents are selling the cheaper houses, a few more sales now than before, it looks better than before."

On the other hand, looking at new-build flats on an estate in a good part of town: the estate agent told me that a certain price they stated was the last and final price, no further discount possible. 2 months later, that same estate and same size flat (maybe the same flat, maybe not, I don't know) is now nearly 10% cheaper.

Very patchy story it seems.

Is some law coming into force from January, meaning that buyers will need to find more of their own money for a deposit or down-payment?

I ask because I stumbled upon this in a newsletter, in Polish, which seems to say exactly that when I try to translate it.


Could anyone put more flesh on the bones of that for me?

Flat in good part of the city, seems to have been reduced from approximately 600 tys to 450 tys

Same 106m2 flat, same agent, 1/4 of the asking price shaved off...

600 K cnk.pl/index.php?fidx=7&sortby=POW_CALKOWITA&desc=1&pg=pi&st=10&lm=10&pidx=431

450 K gumtree.pl/cp-mieszkania-i-domy-sprzedam-i-kupie/wroclaw/mieszkanie-wroclaw-krzyki-106m2-nr-14567-612165718

I think the reduction is very recent. That's 25 % off.

Must admit I wish the properties I was interested in would drop similarly. So far, they're sticking to their price and some of them have been holding out for years.

Work / What is deducted from a salary in Poland apart from Income tax? [155]

I think the first deduction is national insurance/social security, then they take the tax off that figure.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]


How dare thee!!

I don't know anything about Warsaw (and not that much about Wro either, of course! it's all a mystery to me!) but hopefully someone will have some answers for you...

Life / Are there any launderettes in Katowice? [5]

Please note that 5asec is what we in the UK would regard as a dry cleaners. Such places are often found in shopping centres/malls. They do however also wash shirts and blouses, and iron them. They won't however do general laundry as far as I know, and are nothing like Dot Cotton on Eastenders...

Life / Where to buy a Virgin Mobile SIM card in Krakow, Poland? [4]

I doubt it, but you can always have a look if passing the door.

UK, Ireland / Modern day slavery in the UK [36]

Sheds with beds

telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/10143697/Blighted-by-an-epidemic-of-beds-in-sheds.html

Life / Where to buy a Virgin Mobile SIM card in Krakow, Poland? [4]

Auchan hypermarket in Krakow should have them for 5 or 10 ZL. If not near one, try any of the newsagents or little booths in shopping malls like Teletorium. But the newsagents should have one. Some other supermarkets also have them. Zabka (the frog logo convenience store) sometimes also have them but be sure to make clear you want the card not a top up. Say phonetically "Prosh-ah Virgin/vergeen mobeel seem carter?" and that should be enough to get you understood. Of course, the shop assistant might speak English so you might get the response "You want what, darlin'?"

Real Estate / What is the rent of a house in Warsaw? [4]

In a city such as this, from approx. 3000/4000PLN a month plus service charges such as rubbish or security or communal fees, plus utilities such as water, energy.

An agent will also try to charge a fee of about 1/2 or 1 month's rent. If you check Gumtree or OLX, you'll see most property is handled by agents. About 1 in 10 or less by owners directly.

Of course, some houses are much more expensive, and very occasionally some are cheaper than the figures I have given.
You'll pay a lot less outside of the major cities.

From another thread I see you are probably hoping for Warsaw, in which case it's probably more for somewhere reasonably nice, but you can check here olx.pl/nieruchomosci/domy/wynajem/warszawa/q-dom/

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

Area and indeed street where there are 2 or 3 new blocks under construction in addition to several already completed recently and a few years ago.
As you can see, the developer has sold almost all:
dewelopart.pl/inwestycje-realizowane/scalino/znajdz-mieszkanie/#

I would have thought the number of blocks of flats being built in that area would result in serious over supply and yet we see they appear to almost all be sold in the link above. There are more blocks yet to be built there I believe, and it will be 'interesting' to see how the area copes with what will surely be a tripling or quadrupling of residents. The only conclusion I can draw is that there is a large drain from smaller towns and rural areas to the cities, and somehow they have the money to buy. Whether that's the MDM programme or other means I have no idea. Of course, if might also be foreign investors or local landlords, not forgetting Poles abroad buying with money they made in the UK etc. I have been very surprised at the sales. Some other estates not far away although perhaps a little more expensive still have empty units from having been built several years ago, however. Those empty units are not always over the size limit of MDM. Some developers have slashed prices on their last few units to shift them, not all have yet been offloaded.


Perhaps.

This past week saw me get my Polish speaking helper call 3 agents about 3 different properties, 1 listed in July and the other 2 in the past fortnight. All 3 agents failed to call back with appointments or any contact at all. 1 of the agent's main offices said to book the viewing via the specific agent's mobile phone. But that agent simply didn't answer his mobile phone nor reply to an SMS. The other 2 agents said they'd call back with appointments but didn't call back at all. The last 2 also ignored emails that I sent in Polish. Going back a few weeks or months, I recall one place that I tried to see 3 times. Each time the agent said they'd call back and never did. The first call was when the property was fresh to market, the second a week later, the third when it was relisted as still available. I have no real idea why it's supposedly for sale when they don't even let anyone see it :D

This is by no means unusual. Same thing happened a week or two ago with 2 other places in the same street with 2 separate agents. 1 place then disappeared from the listings and the other remains for sale to date, officially at least. Never heard back from 1 of the agents, the other agent made contact after 2 phone calls and 2 emails and just asked for my phone number which I had already supplied twice, in fact he only needed to look down the page for it. Hopeless. And yes it was the right number and my phone works fine.

Not far from the almost sold out estate mentioned in my above post yesterday, I note from Gumtree today there are 4 or 5 nearly finished flats on the market via an agent on behalf of the developers. The ads suggest a 2 to 5% price reduction on the flats because the price in the ad text does not match the main price in the ad. Unless of course the agent increased the amount in the text but forgot to amend it in the price field! This is a very recent change. So, it's quite a mixed picture. My general impression though is it looks like prices continue to drop in actual fact on many secondary and some new ones too it seems. But that said, most of the new ones do seem to be sold already, whether at full price or a discount I can't know.

Unless I'm misunderstanding it, this newbuild house in a village near Wrocław has been reduced in price by 15% (check difference between price in ad text and price field)

(assuming price field is updated after ad text!)

olx.pl/oferta/dom-krzykow-134m2-garaz-20m2-7km-od-wroclawia-dojazd-asfalt-CID3-ID7c12n.html#ece2ee6401;promoted

Nevertheless, with flats in Partynice having been something like PLN3250/m2 for 70m2 about 8 or 9 years ago, prices don't exactly seem cheap when coming in to the urban areas.

That said, I am told lots of department managers in Wrocław are earning 12PLN tys gross upwards per month. If that's widely true and there's enough of them, they aren't likely to care too much about today's higher prices. (Team leaders or Junior Managers are on around PLN6-8 tys, I'm told).

Law / Emailing of direct marketing mailshots in Poland - laws? [3]

Thanks Looker.

I thought as much, so I shall hold off on the mailshot emails until I get that permission somehow - although in reality I don't think it's going to be possible. This perhaps means I can only send mailshots via snail mail, which is prohibitively expensive really.

UK, Ireland / Curious about differences Polish people see with the British? [95]


And in Moscow and probably other parts of Russia.

I also notice that when I open a door for a woman of any age here (eg going in or out of a shop or public place) I almost never get a thanks. Earlier today I stopped a barrier from hitting a 30-something woman's leg (I grabbed it before it hit her thigh). No thank you, smile or other acknowledgement. In the parts of the UK I know of, that omission would be unusual. Here it's normal.

UK, Ireland / Curious about differences Polish people see with the British? [95]


A cup of tea and 2 Rich Tea biscuits are about the most a casual visitor may get, more if it's a reciprocal visit and they're owed a meal or something special. We have been known to run to a half-packet of Basics tortilla chips and a jar of Value dip if really pushing the boat out.

Life / UK British TV in Poland for free [7]


I hope you find something soon. I know it's pants money, but maybe try a little conversational teaching. Market's saturated here it seems, but maybe better luck there?


One of the addons I tried last year was flagged up as having malware present, and took 2 programs to get rid.

UK, Ireland / Curious about differences Polish people see with the British? [95]


Very few in Wrocław except for weekend booze up trippers, frankly, or that's how it seems. Does anyone know how many Brits live in Wrocław? I hardly meet any but am guessing just 100!! I only know of 10.

Food / Fluoride in the water - is there a chart in Poland? [11]

Thanks for posting that, Pam. I feel reassured now. I was checking the bottled water yesterday and saw various levels. Of course, some would say that water in any plastic bottle is a no no anyway, and people should only drink from glass. But that's another show... :)


Yes, I heard it used to be in the water before, but not any more, and there isn't any added now (and from Pam's post it seems that's correct). And Smurf also says the same while of course reminding us that some naturally occurs (but it's not the same stuff as the byproduct some water companies add in some countries).


Thanks Smurf, and I agree, it is not a good idea to swallow it at all.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

The price of flats is all the more remarkable when you consider the czynsz (monthly service charge) on many of them. I was looking at renting one in Klecina today. The charge per month is stated as 1070 zl in addition to the rent and electricity. This is a rental of 1500 zl per month, 2-room. Landlords or owners now also have to pay tax on their parking spaces or garages - I have been told this charge has risen by a factor of 10 in recent years and that's why the czynsz is so high on flats with parking. I have no real way of checking, but that's what I was told.

Take a trip to the smart blocks and the smart houses and the residents seem to be ordinary retired people or ordinary working and waged people (on Polish incomes). I could be wrong, but considering those 'better' flats are now US$800 tys. and houses are US$2 M it's hard to imagine that they would have been able to buy at today's prices. If so, this city must have a very high proportion of wealthy individuals given how many expensive blocks and expensive detached and semi-detached homes there are. It must rival Knightsbridge!

Food / Fluoride in the water - is there a chart in Poland? [11]


Thanks, if I discover any info I shall post here.

Food / Fluoride in the water - is there a chart in Poland? [11]


Yes someone told me residents' teeth allegedly got damaged through too much of it, or something like that. And of course there are other negatives said to be possible. I was told Wro removed it from the water, but I'd like to be sure. I may also move out of Wro and would like to know where water's the most natural. Wro might get some of its water fed in from mountain sources, I'm not sure, I can only hope...


Krakow of course has another issue, allegedly krakowpost.com/article/6285

Life / Best / cheapest PAYG sim card for data and calls in Poland? [19]


Email them first, they speak English, and make sure I'm right. It's been a while since I used their internet packages. virginmobile.pl/cmok

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

Yeah but they promised to spam me :) They asked what I am looking for and promised to send me stuff. Only about 1 in 10, perhaps less, bothered. I actually put a written offer in to a dev in proper Polish a while back (by hand and email) and they totally ignored me! Not the first time. Think I was too low? Well, just 6 months on and the price I offered is within a couple of percent of the prices they're now advertising. Yet did they now contact me and say OK or come up 2% and we'll boogie? No. Not a word.

I strongly recommend that sellers either should sell directly or do test phone calls and emails to their agents and pretend to be buyers, to see if the agents bother much. If I ever buy here and then need to sell, I know exactly which agents to use but I'd still test them in case they'd gone downhill. And there are only 2 or 3 I'd thumbs up at most.

Life / Best / cheapest PAYG sim card for data and calls in Poland? [19]

If I'm reading it right, virtual network Virgin do 4GB with unlimited SMS and 300 mins talk time for 29 ZL. Probably only good if in major cities, I know from experience coverage was patchy if not totally absent for internet when I travel by train. Phone calls are possible but internet comes and goes en route.

virginmobile.pl/oferta

Play might have more coverage and they were also good when I used them, as was Lyca but it might get patchy out of cities.

T-Mobile I had a poor experience with regarding billing and I wouldn't be their customer again.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]


I'm close to giving up, Jon, I really am. I'm thinking of just renting on. Or maybe I'll move to another city with a better choice. Sigh.


Yeah spot on (although a house would be better as decent flats are very expensive on the monthly charges usually).


Well, try telling the sellers that here. They and the agents behave like buyers are 10 a penny. It's so seldom that an agent tries to stay in touch or offer me something else when I don't buy the first one they show me. And if I don't buy the second, I can definitely forget it! They probably block my emails after that! :)

I ain't kidding. I have never seen such disinterested agents anywhere ever. It's like they are giving up or have a million other buyers. One agent had the phone always ringing and she was speaking in English to buyers who she said were Indian people. So I can only guess foreigners are buying stuff and don't care about the prices, but I do and I feel the prices are based on credit availability rather than wages and sustainable real incomes. But what do I know - that didn't stop the UK which is well over 2007 peak in some areas or so the news tells us.

Love / Fun date ideas in Wroclaw [3]

Take your date to Aquapark aquapark.wroc.pl/en (English link supplied)

Alternatively, see wroclawuncut.com/events-2

Law / Touched goods in Poland's stores are considered "sold"? [6]

Happened to me in Zabka three days back, near the city centre. And old bill stopped and gave me the once over out the window of a panda yesterday too. I look well dodg'.

Law / Touched goods in Poland's stores are considered "sold"? [6]

In that case, I've a huge bill coming to me, because I often take electrical goods out of boxes to see them demonstrated and sometimes I don't buy if they seem unsuitable. Often staff do this for me and then let me try or handle the goods (if you pardon the expression). When it comes to food, I don't know. I am not one of these people who eats their shopping as they walk around the store, but I'd be surprised if picking up an apple to check for bruising means you have to buy it.

Of course, it might be that in some countries, powering up an electrical device prospective purchase renders it 'used' and no longer new.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

Almost all seem so disinterested, though, that I can only assume BNing is a mere hobby for them or that they have lots of other deals going through to make ends meet. What I have also noticed is that agents will keep listing and updating houses and flats for many months. And it's only when I enquire that they discover the flat or house is sold or rented out when they actually contact the vendor. So, if my random choices are anything to go by, a number of the ads are invalid even if recently (and by recently I mean the last week or so) updated or relisted. I am currently pessimistic about the chance of buying something, and more or less intend to continue to rent (which I don't like at all but seems literally no other option in my circumstances). At least when each rental turns out to have noisy people all around, I can at least move quite easily. There's a lot to be said for that!

This one, in a prestige road in a good area called Borek, seems to be down from 560 tys to 479 tys, if you check the difference between the price in the text and the headline price. gumtree.pl/cp-mieszkania-i-domy-sprzedam-i-kupie/wroclaw/mieszkanie-wroclaw-krzyki-104m2-nr-14563-610457813

If it's a mere marketing technique to make something look cheap I'd be surprised. The price is probably not expensive by comparison if it's where I think that flat is. It might even be cheap compared to others nearby of that size. If I were in the market for a flat, I'd probably have a look at it because they might even take 450. Considering houses are well over 1.2 million in that vicinity (often much more), it's realistically priced at the moment even when taking into account a bit of modernising, 2% buying tax and all the fees. There are flats in newer blocks miles away at that price which are inconveniently situated and full of screaming kids to disturb any peace, making this look a very reasonable deal in my experience as an observer if it is where the ad says and there are no hidden drawbacks.

Here's an interesting one:

Flat for sale at 370 tys earlier this year.
Price dropped to 350 tys then most recently 340 tys.
I noted from my own research the flat was in the hands of the debt collector's office last month or earlier this month (I can't remember exactly).

All this time, the owner-occupier or tenant is living in the flat.
The same flat is now back on the market at 390 tys.

Seems strange. Or it could be that some estate agents get business by promising higher sums, as Jon said. But if it didn't sell at 340 tys...

This won't come as news to some, but the EU is, it seems, about to restrict some aspects of loans which are used by people who want to buy flats or houses to rent out. "Buy to let" mortgages have caused some problems in the UK, as landlords have increasingly bought properties for investment or pension purposes. This has caused something of a shortage of homes to buy in some regions. I imagine the same is true to some extent here in Poland although the yield (the return on capital employed) is much lower than in the UK from what I can tell, plus of course Poland starts taxing at approx US$1000 (US$1K or US$1 tys.) and the UK starts taxing at a much more generous US$17K or something like that. Thus, Poland's landlords get less rent money per zloty and have to pay tax on that rent much sooner. Nevertheless, a glance at the listings on Gumtree or similar shows that there are a lot of rentals available and many BN (estate agent) ads boast "ideal for investment/to rent out" or words to that effect. This is an echo of what's happened in the UK where unsold property gets rented out and others are bought and rented out as an alternative to low interest rates in banks or because BTL mortgages are too freely written.

Recently, one of the UK's biggest private landlords, with a portfolio of many properties in Kent, has made noises about selling up. This might be because of his lender's mortgage book being sold off, or it might be because the property market has peaked and could (at long last) deflate with the removal of certain crutches such as Buy To Let (it may be true that the government there is perhaps introducing another scheme called Rent To Buy, by the way) and stricter loan criteria being applied.

It'll be interesting to see if this EU proposal affects things in Poland too, where there are rentals available due to yield seeking investors and also sellers who can't sell and choose to rent out instead.

EU BTL news
telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/buy-to-let/11121854/Buy-to-let-borrowers-face-new-costs-and-limits.html

Hard to stifle the laughter as I see some of the prices of fresh-to-market secondary flats in some areas. The vendors or agents seem to be on another planet or off their heads on various substances. Some of the most hilarious prices are from vendors directly, obviously as no agent wanted to bother.

On the flip side, more and more of the discrepancies in price (especially of houses) when the large font headline price is lower than the price in the text. Saw another couple of large discrepancies over the weekend, with the headline price being 8 and 12% lower than the price in the text. How long it took for the seller to drop the price I don't know.

I am guessing that newspapers are talking prices up, but it's not turning into reality for all. One of the things I see here that is just like the UK is sellers renting places out while keeping asking prices high if anyone wants to buy the place. This allows sellers to sit out slumps and wait for the market to catch up with their optimistic pricing. I suppose this will pay off for some, eventually.

I forgot to add, that it does however look for sure like apartment rents have increased quite a bit, maybe 15 or 20%. This may be seasonal, I am not sure. I was chatting to a young Polish man yesterday and he told me Wrocław has seen the arrival of a significant number of foreign workers by which he explained that he meant from other parts of Europe including Spain and Italy. I would add that it also has a number from Korea, India and parts of Africa. I have spoken with them outside their offices and at restaurants - it seems most are on contracts of 6 months to 2 years and probably earning enough to live comfortably. I would have thought wages here are a lot lower than Spain or Italy but perhaps work is harder to find there, I don't know.

I was shown around a quite smart flat today, and was almost tempted to make an offer and perhaps buy it despite the fact I really want a house.

However, a quick check using Google shows that it was 15% more expensive in December 2013. So, I'm guessing they'd not want to come down another 10% to where I'd be comfortable. The only thing is, since December or whenever the photos were taken, they've removed some of the light fittings and the flat somehow looks somewhat shabbier. I can only guess the photos were either taken well before December or there was quite a rough tenant living there for some months in the interim.

En passant looking at some of the flats advertised directly by sellers - noticed at least 2 where the price has been reduced in the past 2 weeks by 3 to 5%, along with the removal of some photos from their ads and the addition of new ones. This does not suggest a stampede of buyers, despite the agents' couldn't give a fig attitude to us buyers a lot of the time.

I also have 1 more theory to throw out there for feedback: if the number of direct sellers increases it either means agents don't want to accept places at the seller's unrealistic price, or it means sellers are more optimistic about selling and so think they don't need an agent? Of course, it could also be said that sellers just mucking about and only testing the water (had this done to me twice) use an agent because it's then just the agent who has the expense and time wasted, not the seller.

News / New Shakespeare theatre in Gdańsk [3]

It's definitely something few of us (speaking for myself anyway) realised previously.

Of course, not that most people know Shakespeare's true identity! ;)

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

Looks like there's some new found optimism among some sellers. I heard last week that a friend of a friend lost a flat of around 300 000 -- someone offered more money and the agreement was torn up by the seller.

Although I'm seeing quite a few flats and houses at lower prices (primarily the ones that have been for sale for a while) I am also seeing some obvious optimism in some sellers. Recently a seller told me to shove my offer up my d**a just a few days after agreeing a price with me. It's not been sold to anyone else, but they obviously now think it will be. So, Perhaps the Poland government is introducing new schemes, more MDM or something, to encourage this optimism? Or maybe there's hope of an interest rate cut in response to deflation?

Whatever the reason, I wasn't hugely surprised to find this rather dramatic revision upwards in a flat's asking price over just a few months:

Flat S Wroc:
April asking price 600K
wroclaw.domiporta.pl/nieruchomosci/sprzedam-mieszkanie-wroclaw-krzyki-wietrzna-100m2/131418477?clicksource=standard
Now, asking price 850K
wroclaw.domiporta.pl/nieruchomosci/sprzedam-mieszkanie-wroclaw-krzyki-wietrzna-lux-balkon-taras-wykusz-101m2/134093112?clicksource=standard
(if you doubt it's the same flat, just check the tiles in the bathroom and then the art on the wall in the bathroom to the right of the washing machine)

What's that, nearly 50% more on the asking (not sold) price in just a few months...?

Although am still seeing ads declaring 'new' (ie lower) prices on some flats and possibly houses, recently there are some very ambitious prices in new listings. Would seem to be some increases, many of which seem almost absurd. I can only guess that the newspapers are pumping out rising price stories or the credit taps are on full. Perhaps some of the properties are owned by Poles in Eire, which is apparently booming with serious growth, according to news reports. I guess if you're living in a booming economy, you're tempted to superimpose that on the apartment/house that you want to sell back home? I am of course a mere amateur, purely guessing and merely offer that as one possible explanation, if the newspapers and home [Poland] economic 'news' are not the obvious catalyst.

It is clear, however, that Wroclaw seems much busier than ever before. The buzz has got louder, although how widely inclusive that is may be open to question. I am not a beneficiary of that buzz myself, sadly.

And on the other hand, the last new (primary) apartment on a quality development is still sticking and unsold despite a cut in price of something like 12% in the past 3 weeks, I am reliably informed. I won't say where but in a good part of town where some of the properties are for sale for higher prices on the same estate or adjacent (but I think the same developer built them and some are now for sale on the secondary market).

So, I think I have to concede I don't really know what's going on! Mixed messages from the market and perhaps there are patches of activity with a bounce here or there due to optimism based on something or the other. Whether these are translating to sales I don't know. I can say the agents seem busy somewhere and often too busy to help with enquries. Make of that what you will. It could be they are selling lots or it could be they are delivering parcels. I can't come to any conclusions now, there are so many conflicting signs.

When I go past one of the main new estates in S Wrocław at night, most of the lights seem to be off, suggesting a low occupancy rate. Yet the agents say they let 18 flats there with none available now, and prices reduced on the remaining 'few' flats. So, who has bought but not moved in? These flats have supposedly been mostly all sold for many months now, perhaps 6 Yet drive past and almost every window (about 95%) is dark. Seems a bit inconsistent with the idea of them being sold. Average prices 350 tys. 200 flats or more.

Another new estate nearby, all flats are definitely sold. Average price 300 tys. 45 flats.

Another new estate in Partynice, 7 or 8 flats still unsold out of 500 flats, 1-2 years after completion. Average price 350 tys.

Another estate on the edge of S Wrocław not far from Partynice, and here all but 5 of over 100 houses are apparently sold. Average prices 800 tys.

villemurano.pl/?utm_source=domiporta&utm_medium=double&utm_term=1719&utm_campaign=goldbach#/pl/domy

It could be that Poland's government subsidies for buyers of new homes is having a positive effect on some flats within the size constraint, yet I think houses are outside of the subsidy, and they are still apparently mostly sold at the estate above.

Agents are increasingly simply failing to phone back when my Polish speaking friend tries to make appointments to view homes. This indifference to buyers would, if sellers were keen to sell, be very bad news for sellers. But of course it would seem to suggest that buyers are increasingly less important, would it not? These are different agents that I've not previously dealt with so cannot say they are tired of showing me places! Indifference and agents not bothering is far from unusual here.

It's likely a mixed picture, with some properties coming to market at what might be increased prices. Others reduced in price after not selling. One flat that I can't help but notice was 5% lower 18 months ago before rising 5%, then reduced to that price again 2 months back, and now 5% higher again. Still unsold.

This house has risen in asking price over the last 14 months (from 799 tys to 833 tys)
2013 approx. Q3 otodom.pl/luksusowy-dom-id20612320.html 799 000
2014 Sept otodom.pl/dom-wroclaw-klecina-330m2-6-pokoi-833000-pln-id30394453.html 833 000 although now it might be 0% buyer fee


and billed as 'negotiable' of course. There is some movement towards not charging buyers a commission fee but it's still in its infancy in Wrocław. (Most agents still try to charge 1-2% and sometimes more.)

Same flat
Now 375 tys olx.pl/oferta/wroclaw-fabryczna-oporow-71m2-4-pokoje-1-pietro-2-garaz-2004r-CID3-ID54bu1.html#3671d7495c
Different agent 407 tys1 week ago olx.pl/oferta/74-m2-4-pok-oporow-mieszkanie-z-atutami-CID3-ID5i0uw.html#3671d7495c

Doubt it's the same flat? Just check the white kitchen cupboard doors, the big silver-coloured worktop object that looks like a large football trophy, and of course the description and size. It's definitely the same flat. I have seen prices go down and then back up in a matter of weeks before, perhaps it's for a short period when sellers have found somewhere else and are trying to secure the other place they want to buy. Once the other purchase is lost the price may revert back up. Just a theory, could be wrong.