Poland's apartment prices continue to fall

Is the Olympics actually pushing up the prices?

When Vancouver hosted there was so much speculation about the prices sky rocketing. What actually happened is that in Whistler- the prices dropped slightly. Vancouver pretty much stayed the same. The prices in both of these places are quite inflated anyway- but the Olympics didn't have a huge effect on the property prices.

Poland and Ukraine are not the only ones to take advantage of this Summers sports.

guardian.co.uk/money/2012/feb/03/tenants-olympic-lets

london24.com/2012-olympics/olympics-news/london_2012_hoteliers_raise_prices_ahead_of_olympic_games_1_1209849

Here you are Milky, 64,500 PLN a m2 and cheap at half the price. I expect they will swell it for 32,000 m2 if you ask nicely.

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2114336/HOW-One-room-beach-hut-electricity-running-water-sale-126-000.html

Hotel prices are up for the two weeks (which could backfire), no effect on house prices.


Thamesmead. They can't even give away some places there. Its a very notorious dump. See a 'A Clockwork Orange'.

Again, its irrelevant, we are talking average, used a a guide, not 'exceptions that prove the rule'.


It will affect yields all across the property market - its a negative feedback loop, so house prices will go down and keep going down.


More becuase they are the only anywhere near affordable properties anyone starting a professional life a can afford. A degree, a good job and a student loan and in ten or fifteen years of saving a couple will be able to buy a ex-council flat.

People like you and Harry would never be able to afford to buy in London if you left school today. Unless you had a rich parents.

Why should you be able to buy a property when you leave school? Surely you should have to work and earn money first?

Some people might think that owning property is a human right.

That sounds like a socialist idea. I always thought that socialism was having shares in Fcuk all.

I'll explain.

Leave school, get a job, work for most of your life and still not be able to afford to buy.

Is that why property is still selling? or are you saying that only millionaires are buying houses and apartments?

waiting for an answer, too.

I bought a property less than 3 years after starting to work full time. Not difficult, provided you're willing to work hard to get it. I'm not a millionaire, sadly.

Sales volumes (Mortgage Approvals) in the UK are at half their pre-crash levels.

bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/Pages/li/2009.aspx

brickonomics.building.co.uk/2011/10/2011-is-set-to-be-worst-year-in-decades-for-uk-house-sales

So property is still selling, just far less than before.


That makes you unusual.

Took me five years (and then some years with a mortgage, which is now paid off).

Ah, of course, I have a mortgage too, like most ordinary people.

I actually think a huge problem in Poland is the way that many young women put babies over careers - they then get stuck in crappy accomodation because they simply haven't got the ability to buy a place.

I didn't take a holiday of longer than three nights (or outside of Poland, with the exception of trips to visit my parents) in the years before I bought my flat or until the mortgage was paid off.


Yep, if you want a couple of kids, a couple of foreign holidays per year and a newish car every couple of years, it is going to be tough to afford a decent place to live.

Lucky you, buying while prices were low. You couldn't do the same today could you?

Yes, I was really lucky to not take a holiday longer than a weekend away, to work hard and to put my money into my property.


I most certainly could afford to buy now, although I wouldn't be able to pay the mortgage off so quickly.

I had a chat with a depressed friend today. She and her husband took out a 25-year, 195K mortgage on a flat a year ago. They both work, and pay over a thousand a month to the bank. After their first year they've reduced their capital repayment by....100 PLN. Poor buggers.

Such are mortgages. They're horrible things when you look at them in the beginning - I'm looking at mine now, and the capital repayments in the beginning were around 150zl a month. It's one reason why I'm pouring money into overpayments - they go straight to capital repayment.

Good move if you can afford it. I know a schoolteacher who borrowed 50K over 25 years. She'll have paid 2.5 times that back by then. I borrowed that amount three years ago and paid the last installment last week. We're lucky Delph. From what I've read you work hard, and so do I. But some, e.g. state school teachers, nurses, etc, earn so little that their only option is to borrow at usurous rates from banks, or worse. For me, a shipload of bank CEOs going down is a good day. (OK, I'm a naive old socialist!)

Lazy *******. They should give up their holidays, that will pay the mortgage in no time.

I must admit - it's hard to see the wood for the trees. When you make a 2x overpayment and see your mortgage go down by not very much (compared to the actual payment each month), it's like "meh, what's the point?". But I want to buy a house in 5 years - and the only way that's going to happen is by having a decent deposit. Pain today, gain tomorrow I guess.


State school teachers are an interesting bunch. There's certainly no excuse for language teachers to struggle financially (I know one who runs her own private school as well as working the mandatory 20 45-minute classes in school - she's raking it in) - but on the other hand, it's easy to see how unpopular subject teachers can struggle, especially the ones that have no demand for private lessons.

But one interesting thing for me - is the way that the culture here was to take an absolutely massive mortgage on a huge property that you can barely afford. I used to teach one guy who was very heavily involved in retail mortgages, and he said that they were forever getting people applying for mortgages way beyond their means - and when they were asked "how do you intend to pay for it?" - they always said "oh, we'll earn more in future". Insanity.

A little piece of advice: don't comment on something you know nothing about. The people I mentioned are a hardworking couple who don't have holidays.

List of countries by change in house prices

Poland, 46th. -6.6%


I know my comment was ridiculous.

It was aimed at Harry, who apparently believes working harder and giving up holidays is the solution.

" It was aimed at Harry, who apparently believes working harder and giving up holidays is the solution."
Did the trick for me. Did the trick for telfcat. And for Delph (although he took holidays). Forgive me for observing that if some people spent more time working and less time whining about property prices, they might be more able to afford the property they want.

I know what you're saying, but the couple I'm talking about are, in many respects, very typical of their type: university-educated, hardworking, the husband taking a second degree at weekends.

These guys are the ones who didn't fcuk off to England or Germany. They could have (they did for a while, to Belgium, to get the deposit) but they want to build a life in Poland, and I salute them for that.

Their parents' generation didn't have to feel that they were slaves to a bank, as they do. There's no alternative, I know. I just feel lucky that although I work no less hard than they do, I've been able to put a roof over my head without feeling like the bank is the Big Bad God in my life. And that, for me, is what's shifted in Poland. Church to Bank. (I''ve got one night off between 21 days' straight work and another fifteen, so forgive me if I seem a little emotional in my assessment of 'Polish Reality'.)

btw I celebrated the last payment by taking out another loan to buy a new old car (if you know what I mean). I've borrowed 20K over two years. The repayment will cost more, pro rata, than the 50K loan. The bankers no doubt call this progress. Also, I have to pay 1800PLN insurance on the loan (didn't happen with the old loan). If I drop dead, the bank gets its money. So I'm paying for the bank's insurance. Win Win for the bank.

Indeed, if I didn't bother with random trips to Berlin and suchlike, the mortgage would get paid off even faster.

But that's what happens when you knuckle down - sure, it's not exactly pleasant to stand outside in March collecting data for a project (like my wife was doing last week) - but that same project pays the mortgage.

I think it's all about realistic expectations. I'd love to bugger off to Montenegro again for 3 weeks in summer, but it's just not going to happen this year.

" (I''ve got one night off between 21 days' straight work and another fifteen, so forgive me if I seem a little emotional in my assessment of 'Polish Reality'.)"

Is that code for you also having a few bottles of Perla in front of you?

I sometimes wonder how much faster I would have paid off the mortgage if I'd given up drinking and smoking.

I totally agree - for me, the relative unaffordability of property in Poland is partially due to the massive social transfer to that generation. With the mass sell-off of the housing stock in the early 90's, as well as the hugely subsidised building programme in the 70's/80's - the generation now in their 50's have more or less screwed up the people in their late 20's nowadays.

Thats harsh man, realities of life and all that...... well realities of the monetary system.

Yep, to some people thats becuase of their hard work, when in reality is simply good luck.