Krakow - living and working

Hello,
I'm having a question concerning my possible future in Krakow.
I applied for a job in Customer Service and Sales for one company in Krakow Business Park.
Could you assist me with providing me some info on average brutto/netto salaries for this field in Krakow, also with some general costs of living in rented apartment, monthly costs concerning all the utilities and transportation plus food (homemade, not restaurant).

Also, under which district belongs KBP and are this positions desirable for EU foreigners, could you manage your living with salary from this type of job?

Laura, you can just Google it. Type: 'Krakow living cost' and "numbeo" will answer your question :)
Where are you from?

@Baldwin - I'm from Slovenia. I don't trust Numbeo, the exaggerate in some places and underestimate prices in other. As I've found on varios pages, salary in customer service for foreigners is around 5000 PLN brutto. Which is, as I've found on calculla.com, around 3550 PLN. And then I've looked for studios+utilities and prices are between 1200 (just rent) + 1000 (rest), so that leaves me with 1350 PLN for traffic tickets, internet and food, and it doesn't seems that it would be manageable.

Considering that there wouldn't be any surprising costs, like heating prices going up or so...

I'm looking for info or links from real Poles or people living in Krakow who knows how are the real prices. Whre KBP is, and how are the renting prices in the area.

Could you assist me?

Kraków is quite an expensive city. Have you considered renting something outside of Krakow i.e. Nowa Huta? Salaries in customer service are not great in general but yours looks ok. You will be fine

Hi Laura, there was a very recent thread about moving to Kraków, somebody on a net salary of around 3,000PLN was looking for info. I think it might be of help to you as there were quite detailed responses:

https://polishforums.com/work/poland-phd-moving-krakow-salary-housing-78284/

Those rent levels would relate to parts of Kraków like Nowa Huta.


It isn't very much, that's true, however if you are young; it's doable.

Thynk you @Baldwin, @Atch, @jon357

I have now looked at that page with PhD position with salary of 3000OPLN brutto. I can't believe that someone with PhD would accept it, I have only BA degree, perhaps that person doesn't know for taxation and that netto will bi significantly less. I don't believe that that person would be able to rent, pay bills and eat, especially as a foreigner (who doesn't understand the language and doesn't know where and when to buy). On my calculation, I'm not sure that with 5000PLN bruto, as it would be 3550 netto (real money on the hand) I could pay for everything.

So now I have discovered that Krakow Business Park is in Zabierzów. English Wikipedia says it it is village and gmina. I presume that then there are not many renting options (In Slovenia, in villages, people rarely rent and then some of them would like to charge you more for the ''clean air, beautiful nature etc.'' than the people from the city).

So if selected from the company, I would prefer to move to the western part of Krakow, near bus or train line for Zabierzow, as I see that would be districts number I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII. Nowa Huta is far at the east so just the traveling to-from the Zabierzow would cost much. If possible, I would like to rent a studio for 1000PLN, I eat everything from Lidl, would use monthly bus or train ticket...

I have found some pages of renting agencies, could you testify that they are desirable to use if you had some experiences with them, or give me link for some other agencies.

-rentsellersgroup.com/ - I see some nice studios in price range from 900-1200PLN. What does a person pay under utilities (water, electricity, heating, internet?) and what would be costs for it for an average Pole?

-leachandlang.com/offer/54236/flat-rent-krakow-debniki-zamkowa
-property-krakow.com/properties/search/?want=rent&type=apartment&region=&currency=PLN&sort=date_excl&advanced_search=0&price_from=&price_to=1,500&size_from=&size_to=&level_fr om=&level_to=&baths_from=&plot_size_from=&street=&development=&

It's impossible to be precise, you can only estimate but your expenses would break down something like:

Czynsz (water and refuse charges): 200-300PLN (but it could be more)
Electricity/gas: 150 ish.
Internet: 60 ish
Transport/Monthly Ticket: 100 ish

So up to about 600PLN on top of your rent.


An average Pole will have exactly the same costs as anyone else for those things. There are no special deals on electricty or gas just because you're Polish!

You say you want to rent something for around 1,000 so best to budget for another 600-700. It'll be a tight budget but you could rent something cheaper.

Numbeo is pretty good at estimates like this kinda stuff

numbeo.com/cost-of-living/city_result.jsp?country=Poland&city=Krakow+(Cracow)]

It really depends If it does require any previous experience, being a native speaker of any foreign language etc. If it is entry level position which basically require just fluent English and nothing else, It might be as low as 2500 PLN net.


1200 for rent is ok but 1000 for utilities definitely isn't, unless you keep x devices running 24/7, hot water for 1h a day etc. it should be more like 350 a month.

Regarding KBP it's technically in a village but it's just outside the city's borders. Maybe not "a stone's throw from the city center" as they advertise it -> kbp.pl but not very far away, I'm sure 99% of people working there live in the city and use bus/train/car to commute there.


3500 net will be enough unless you choose some overpriced flat or want to eat at the market square restaurants everyday. Doing it "student style" with flat sharing, cooking on your own etc. you could actually make it on half of that money.

Yes, but unfortunately the OP doesn't trust them:

Lol

Yea, I forgot that Numbeo are involved in the faking-prices-charade and are actually in cahoots with the Illuminati to stop people moving to Central Europe

I made a check on Numbeo for Krakow and it's fairly accurate. In general you wouldn't get any wiser getting answers from the forum, only for special types of items and such. For rents, foods and transportation it's close enough.

There are lot of big corporations out in KBP, none of it's employees live in Zabierzow. You'll be fine, probably even meet some people every morning on the commuter train to talk to.

O, no, I didn't think like that. I was thinking, if anyone know, what would be living costs for single Polish living in rented studio, how much would be spent in month on utilities, food, without restaurants and going out.


;) haha, you made me laugh. No, I think that prices represented at Numbeo are sometimes, exaggerated, and sometimesunderrated for some parts. I think that personal experience from forum users is far more realistic.

Although, I don't think that anyone would be able to live with salary of netto 2000pln, if that person isn't living with parent and gets food from them and rest. Someone said in another post in this forum that students can survive with less, but students in dormitory and people renting can't even compare.

Thank you everyone, you were of great help too me, let's just cross fingers that everything goes well and they take me for an employer. The rest would be easy, as you say.

*employee

I was trying to share some info before but will summarize again how I managed and how much I was spending, might give some idea

I was living in a decent studio - not in city center but in a place close to tram station.

1100 pln - rent
300 pln - administration (including hot-cold water and heating)
50-60 - electricity
60 - internet
800-1000 - food
500-600 - for myself extras such as cell phone (maybe not extra) going out with friends, eating out once in two weeks etc.

I was not paying much for transport as I was close to my office however, you can count around 100 pln for monthly ticket

Then I bought a car and the expenses got higher but will not include anything about that.

around 3000 you will live okay, if you get more than 4000 net, you will be good in my opinion (depending on your lifestyle and needs)

Thank you @istanbullu34 that was of great help for me.

Could anyone help me now with the way of finding accommodation? Which internet sites have you been browsing for accommodation?
I can find only few of them which have studios in Krakow, and they don't have low prices in that range form 300-1300 pln for single person, studio.

Here's a couple of links for you Laura. I searched in price range up to 1000PN per month:

nieruchomosci.pl/wyniki/?ps%5Btype%5D=1&ps%5Blocation%5D=10-15-31&ps%5Btransaction%5D=2&ps%5Bprice_to%5D=1000

otodom.pl/wynajem/mieszkanie/krakow/?search%5Bfilter_float_price%3Ato%5D=1000&search%5Bdescription%5D=1&search%5Bdist%5D=0

do miporta.pl/mieszkanie/wynajme/malopolskie/krakow?Price.To=1000

Thank you so much @Atch