Where can I find a nice area to rent a studio or one-bedroom apartment in or near Katowice?

Hi all,

I am coming by the middle of this month to study in Katowice for 2 years at university. I am looking for a nice area to rent a studio or one-bedroom apartment. I don't care a lot about location as long as it is in a safe area and close to the bus station or tram (as I won't be driving).

Any advice on how much to expect to pay for the rent per month? I saw some places on the internet where the price was near or below 1,000 PLN, but some of these were in other cities near Katowice like Bytom and Chorzow. Are these easily accessible from Katowice?

Also, do I need to pay any commission in case I deal with a real-estate agent?

What about extra fees like (extra month deposit, insurance, etc.)?

What happens if I decide I want to leave the apartment before the end of my contract? Are there any legal obligations, fees, etc.??

Need some help please,

Thanks

Go to gumtree.pl
I'd recommend Tysiaclecia, it's pretty close to the city centre and is serviced by 3 different tram lines and a few buses. It's walking distance from the largest shopping centre in the area and the biggest recreational park in Poland.

Further out, Brynow, Piotrowice & Ligota are all fine, but they aren't as well serviced by public transport, they have buses, but no trams and the traffic during peak times can be pretty bad.

In Katowice, avoid Zaleze, Szopienice, Dab & Zawodzie, they are scumholes, full of hooligans and undesirables.
Where will you be studying?

Avoid Bytom and Chorzow, they are sh!tholes and if you're a (non-white) foreigner you won't exactly be made to feel welcome.


More than likely, from gumtree you will find plenty of places that will be rented privately.


Sometimes, depends on the landlord though


You'll lose your deposit more than likely, but if you give plenty of notice then they might give it back to you....maybe.

Since you're going to be studying, can you contact the university and ask them for help in finding a place to stay?

You can rent online through airbnb.com. Search for min 1 month in advance and min 1 month renting period, then you will see cheaper prices. It's good to have some place to go after landing in Poland. When here then start searching for apartments yourself with somebody who could translate you.

Yes you can live in Chorzów or Sosnowiec, but then commuting time will be longer. These cities are connected with buses. For checking commuting times use: gop.jakdojade.pl/?locale=en to see commuting times.

Katowice and cities surrounding are called GOP: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Silesian_Industrial_Region

As for renting here you have big database of ads. Here you see studios only: gumtree.pl/fp-mieszkania-i-domy-do-wynajecia/katowice/c9008l3200285?A_NumberRooms=10

Taking as an example this add:
gumtree.pl/cp-mieszkania-i-domy-do-wynajecia/katowice/mieszkanie-na-os-sadyba-katowice-panewniki-609807732

Landlord is saying here that the price is 1050 including heating (probably central heating), what is important, because it can be quite expensive during winter.
The price doesn't include water, electricity, gas. He doesn't mention "czynsz", so it's probably included in price.

Other add: gumtree.pl/cp-mieszkania-i-domy-do-wynajecia/katowice/kawalerka-po-kapitalnym-remoncie-bez-posrednikow-tanio-608186967

Costs 800zł + czynsz 400zł + utilities + heating costs.

Agents are not very popular for renting, but if you get one, then you will have to pay him.
Usual is 1 month rent caution.

I wouldn't tell my worst enemy to live in such dumps.

Personally I wouldn't recommend anybody any city in GOP.

LOL, obviously you know very little of the area, especially if you're recommending Chorzow and Sosnowiec.

I did not recommend, I stated that it's technically possible.

well, in fairness if you're going to say someone should live in an area....or like you say, that's it's possible then you should at least check out whether the place is an utter sh!thole or not.

nobody pays me for that :)

Smurf,

Thank you so much for your answers! I find this information very useful! I will be studying at the University of Economics in Katowice, but I don't want to share a room with someone in the dorms because I don't think they have single rooms there.

I saw your links and actually found some apartments in Chorzow for only 300 Zl. Why is it so bad to rent there? I'm not black like Africans, because I'm from the Middle East. Most European people think I'm from Portugal, Brazil, or southern Europe when they see me as my complexion is pretty fair although not exactly white by European standards, but more like Mediterannean people. Do you think I will be the subject of racist groups if I rent in one of these areas?

I would like to save money from renting so I can spend it for other things during my stay in Katowice. Therefore, if Chorzow and Bytom are just bad because they are crowded, dirty, and noisy, it's not going to be a big deal for me, but if it's going to be dangerous to live there then I might consider other options.

What do you think?


Monitor, thank you so much for this information! This is excellent and very useful! I saw gumtree and saw all the different options. I will have a look at the other site now. I plan to stay a few nights in a hotel when I arrive in Katowice until I find a decent apartment to rent. Do you think 5 days are enough to find a suitable place in or around Katowice?

What about contracts, are they mandatory or is it more flexible and based on mutual agreement and trust? This will be my first time to rent long-term in a foreign country so I don't want to be in any weird or difficult situations.

Cheers.

Contracts are mandatory, as you are obliged to register yourself in Place of your stay (en.your poland/178_residence-registration-duty.html) and for that renting contract is needed.


There are some places, usually around high block buildings, where it's not save even for people from other neighborhood.


It's not realistic price The place would have to be very tiny ( like 16m^2) or be in devastated or have extremely high heating costs ( that can be if windows are old, building is not insulated and there is no central or gas heating )


I don't have big experience of renting in Poland, but I would reserve 2 weeks for myself to be comfortable. And you need to find some translator first as not everybody will speak English.

Okay, can you read this please and tell me what you think? I tried the google translate, but I wasn't sure exactly what is wrong with this place as translations are not very accurate.

DO WYNAJĘCIA MIESZKANIE W CHORZOWIE!!! PIERWSZY ROK NAJMU ZA 80 Z£!!! KONTAKT 660694295!!! Do wynajęcia mieszkanie w Chorzowie.

it's strange. He writes that apartment requires renovation, has not heating (so expensive electric heating is needed). And that for 1 year you pay 80zł/year. But while living there somebody will be doing renovation? Anyway link doesn't work, maybe it's already expired.

I see. Actually, there is many of them. I got them from the website below: globimmo.net/en/search/list/for-rent?page=3#axzz3CEwfCrqR

Prices start from 19 euros all the way to 71 euros.

Perhaps they all need renovation and have no heating?

The reason it's so cheap there is because nobody wants to live there.
It's full of social housing tenements and crime.
There's a local football team with a large hooligan following.

As I said to Monitor, I wouldn't ask my worst enemy to live there.

Besides that there's just very little to do there, there's a main shopping street that's full of really terrible shops, with really crappy products. There's a couple of decent restaurants, but the town is usually empty by 8pm. It has a hooligan problem, graffiti everywhere, the streets aren't clean and hooded teenagers prowl the streets at night looking to pick fights. Avoid.

Bytom is literally hell on earth. I got racially abused there by some local scum and I'm Irish, so I'm more white skinned than your normal Pole. Nobody I've every met here, nobody, has a good word to say about Bytom. It's a dump, full of crimes, junkies, social housing. It's probably the worst place I've ever been to in Poland.

Bytom and Chorzow have more crime than any of the other cities in the Katowice region.

Y'know man, if you wanna save money and live in a sh!thole, then it's your choice, but you get what you pay for. The cheaper something is the crappier the area you're going to be living in.

Plus travelling from Chorzow to that university will take roughly 50-60minutes, more during peak times.
From Bytom it would take even longer, about 20-30 minutes longer.

If I was you, I'd be looking for something in this area: goo.gl/maps/4SWrZ

Close to your school and walking distance to the city centre.

Up to you, but no way in Hell would I touch Bytom or Chorzow.

Smurf,

I put a reply to your message earlier, but for some reason it's not there (either it got deleted by the OP or it didn't go through). So I'll put it again.

Regarding the abuse, was it just verbal abuse or were you actually physically assaulted?

Regarding the distance from Katowice, google tells me it takes about 7 minutes by car from Katwoice to Bytom or Chorzow, but I guess it would take much longer by bus since the bus will stop frequently and go at a slower speed?

Thanks man for your comments, I find it very useful and helpful!

Dear Ahmed

I think Smurf's google map link (goo.gl/maps/4SWrZ) looks like a good suggestion - not far from the University of Economics and the city centre.

If you want an idea of travel times between different places, look at rozklady.kzkgop.pl/index.php.

The tram stop for the University of Economics appears to be Zawodzie Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny.

Tram routes: rozklady.kzkgop.pl/index.php?co=linie_przystanku&id_przystanku=2536

Maybe there's somewhere a short journey on the tram that would be cheap in a reasonable area? I do not recommend commuting from outside Katowice.

why do you guess, I gave you link to the website with times and routes?

I'm checking your link now. It's very good. Now I think google is not accurate because it is giving an average time based on driving. Your link is more correct because it is a local link and uses the duration and times of the buses.

I saw some other towns like Sosnowiec, Rybnik, Zabrze, and Świętochłowice, any idea are these bad like Chorzow and Bytom?? Some of them are not too far based on your link (about 40 minutes by bus) and cheaper than Katowice I think..


Yes, it seems confusing and difficult especially that I still don't know the names of the stations and the bus stops. I had a look at your website which was also recommended to me by the university.

I just think renting inside Katowice will be more expensive and I don't prefer sharing with other people.

People don't recommend, because for all cities except of the capital 40min commuting is considered quite long in Poland. But it's not so bad if it's door to door time, as it's my current commuting time. I cannot tell you which cities in GOP are better or worse. I don't know this region good enough.

I couldn't find average rents in GOP, but I've found average buying price per m2. Probably there is correlation with rents:

Monitor,

Yes, I think it varies based on the opinion of each person. Maybe because most people live alone so for them 40 minutes of commuting is a waste of time as they can use less commuting time to do other things.

I saw your new link, and yes maybe there's a correlation, but anyway the rent prices are all mentioned for these cities on gumtree. I think the price is better than Katowice as some of them are only about 400 zl or 600 zl.

By the way, what part of Poland are you from? which city?

I think that everybody considers commuting waste of time, only less or more painful. What living alone or not has to do with it?


I am writing from Germany. In Katowice I was 3 years ago last time.

Verbal, there have been plenty of reports of physical attacks though, especially when football hooligans are involved.


No, that's impossible. I drive to the Chorzow area quite often during the day and it takes about 20 minutes, during rush hour it takes around 30-40 minutes, minimum. You get a huge amount of traffic at these times. Bytom takes long then obviously because you need to drive passed Chorzow to get there.

The tram from Kato centre to Chorzow takes 30minutes all day long. To Bytom it's about 45 minutes.
The bus is a lot faster than the tram as it only stops 3 times (I think) between Chorzow and the city centre....these are 'fast' buses, they are usually 800 numbers. I don't remember exactly, but the 800s are faster than the other numbers. The same applies to Bytom, but I've taken the bus there once, it took over an hour. Nightmare.

From certain areas of Chorzow, you can get a train, they are cheap and take about 20minutes, but it's a rough area of Chorzow called Chorzow Batory. Zabrze is also serviced by this train, it's an OK area, some parts are rough, but overall it's OK. Quite a boring place though. The train also services Gliwce, it's about 40minutes from Katowice, but it's probably one of the nicest 'cities' in the GOP area.

I used to travel to Chorzow by bus before getting a car, during the day is was roughly 30minutes to Chorzow, longer during peak periods.


Yea, that true, the reason being that the distances between the different cities around Katowice are so small but take ages to drive during peak periods. I was lucky with a previous job, starting at 10 and missing rush hour and finishing at 5.30 and again missing peak traffic. But I know people who work normal hours, 8am-4pm and they spend 45-60mins commuting each way. Madness, I cannot understand why they wouldn't move closer to work. Losing almost 2 hours per day is ludicrous for me.

I get 12 mins on google from University of Economics in Katowice to Chorzow Rynek, 19 mins to Plac Sikorskiego in the centre of Bytom by car. Door to door times would be much longer given the traffic. I'm not sure how you got 7 minutes!

Because I think when people generally live alone they need time to also do other things during the day like cleaning and housework, but if they live with their family it's easier because they can support them with some of these things. At least that's how it's done where I come from.


So you're actually German or a Pole living in Germany?

Smurf,

Yes, that's what I was saying-that google doesn't give accurate information and that's why I looked at the bus website that Monitor gave me. It gives pretty much the same information that you're telling me. So I guess I might take your word and find a place in Gliwice or any of the nicer areas outside of Kato as long as it's not too far in commuting time.

I would really pay no attention to googles times.
I drove to Vienna from Katowice 6 weeks ago. Google says 4 hours, took us 5 hours, 10 minutes. Stopping once for fuel.


Gliwice is very nice, has a small university there so shouldn't be a problem to find a place. Best of luck.

Plus a gorgeous palm house like a scaled down Kew Gardens, just a couple of quid to get in, and don't miss the new aquariums too.

Merged: residential area in katowice

Hi,

It is likely that it is time to move to katowice. I have read some articles stating that the city has pretty high level of pollutants, and the locals arent very familiar with foreigners. Although i dont have any kid, i am wondering where is the right place to reside in to enjoy clean,modern and quiet life. I am looking for an apartment,though.

Regards,

so please advise me where to live and avoid.

p.s : reply with rental fees appreciated!

Enter Katowice in the search bar and you'll find loads of info about living there.

Hi, Smurf

I had already searched before putting this article. However, there were some discrepancy that for instance, one says that the area dąb is recommended while another says to avoid..

And as i was looking into the real estate web site, i found that many apartment i am interested are located in the area called srodmescie. Not sure how this area is.

if any area you would recommended would be very appreciated!