Price of residential property in Warsaw. What percentage of Polish people are house owners here vs renters?

I have just done a few searches on the cost of residential property (mainly free-standing houses) in and around Warsaw. Wow is all I have to say! All the listings are > 1 million. It appears as though the property prices are way out of reach with respect to the average (or higher than average) salaries that are earned here.

From a comparative perspective - I worked and lived in Toronto (which alongside Vancouver are in the top 10 most expensive cities with respect to price of housing). However percentage of house ownership in Canada is 70% (the remaining 30% rest are renters).

I wonder what percentage of Polish people are house owners here vs renters?

However with hard-earned CAD it would make sense to purchase property here (or elsewhere in Central Europe), if there would a be a large return on investment in the mid-long term.

Remember the money you can save on taxes and maintaining of the house in Poland.

There are other members much more knowledgeable than I am about this but I'd say you wouldn't get a 'large' return in the mid-term, not in Poland anyway. Don't know about other central European countries. The best reason to buy a house is because you want to live in it. If you buy it as an investment at those prices, then you need to be prepared for the ups and downs of the property market and maybe be looking at passing it on to your kids or whatever but not expecting to get a big return from it in your own lifetime. That's just my view. I'm sure others will think differently.

@Czech: to give you an idea, I paid some 9,100 ZL/m2 in Stara Ochota (Warsaw) last year. In Praga (Warsaw), it must be around 5 or 6,000. Yes, a lot of Poles own their flats but don't compare with the situation in the West. Most flats owned here (in Poland) are 35-40m2 (often in lousy blocks) and were bought for a few coins at the very end of communism. Also, in poor countries, the % of flat ownership is usually higher than in richer countries where people are not so concerned about securing a roof over their head. I know some people in the west who make great money and don't want to bother buying flats, they prefer traveling around the world and their retirement pensions shall enable them to keep paying expensive rents.

In other words, don't compare apples and oranges!

PS: as to renting it, be aware that it's tricky in Poland since tenants cannot be kicked out....

Take a look back at the last time everybody was posting about property on this forum... around 2007. And then this happened (see chart):

globalpropertyguide.com/Europe/Poland/Price-History

And all comments were talking about how prices would continue to the moon. Be very careful. The problem with your experience is that Canada hasn't experienced a major housing correction. Look at that chart above every day for a month before you invest. Look through this forum to see other peoples experience / life devastation from investing in Polish real estate before the collapse.

Merged: How have residential real estate purchase prices moved in Warsaw over the past 5 years?

Have they generally gone up, down or stayed flat? Is there a difference between the top end of the market and the rest, between houses and apartments? I am of course talking about prices in zlotys per sq m.

Pardon the pun, but they have been spectacularly flat across all segments.