Interest in development continues to grow
Interest in development continues to grow. The market of housing development triggers the growth of economy and is an object of interest of economists, bankers, politicians and entrepreneurs and primarily ordinary citizens. The development market is constantly monitored and constitutes the research subject of the Central Statistical Office of Poland.
The year 2017 was marked by a growth in the number of apartments for which permits were issued (by 19.1% in comparison to 2016), the number of apartments with commenced construction (by 18.4%) and the number of newly commissioned apartments (by 9.3%).
The average usable floor area of apartments was 92.7 square metres in 2017, which was a slight drop (by 1.8 square metres) in comparison to 2016. Larger apartments were recorded in company housing (76.3 square metres – an increase by 13.1 square metres), cooperative housing (57.7 square metres – an increase by 2.0 square metres), council housing (43.3 square metres – an increase by 0.8 square metres) and housing assigned for sale or rental (58.7 square metres - an increase by 0.5 square metres). Smaller apartments were commissioned primarily in individual housing (132.7 square metres – a drop by 1.9 square metres) and social and rental housing (49.2 square metres – a decrease by 1.6 square metres).
178,460 apartments were commissioned
In 2017, 178,460 apartments were commissioned (15,135 apartments more than in 2016 - growth by 9.3%). Positive growth was recorded with respect to apartments for sale or rental - 11,211 more, as well as social and rental housing - 146 apartments more. The only decrease was noted with respect to cooperative housing (395 fewer apartments), company housing (164 fewer apartments) and council housing (32 fewer apartments).
69,714 new housing buildings with an average cubic capacity of 723.8 m3
In 2017, individual investors constructed 69,714 new housing buildings with an average cubic capacity of 723.8 cubic metres (in 2016, 66,465 buildings with average cubic capacity of 723.1 cubic metres). The share in the total number of commissioned new housing buildings amounted to 8.5% and with respect to the total cubic capacity to 63.2% (in 2016: 89.5% buildings and 64.9% of cubic capacity in total, respectively). The average time of construction of a building was 54.7 months, which means that it was shortened.
Individual investors primarily built two-storey buildings (71.9% of cubic capacity of the new housing buildings constructed by them) with an average cubic capacity of 733.1 cubic metres. Apartments in such buildings made up 64.8% of the total number of apartments commissioned by this group of investors in new residential buildings. Single-apartment buildings constituted 91.9% of the cubic capacity of new housing buildings constructed by individual investors in 2017. 85.1% of the total number of apartments commissioned in this form of development in new residential buildings was located in them.
Among new housing buildings commissioned in 2017 by investors other than individual, four-storey housing buildings were dominant with respect to the cubic capacity (18.6% of the cubic capacity of the new housing buildings constructed by this group of investors), five-storey buildings (15.1% of cubic capacity) and six-storey buildings (13.6% of cubic capacity). The average cubic capacity of such buildings amounted to 8,477.9 cubic metres, 12,580.5 cubic metres and 18,209.2 cubic metres, respectively. Apartments in four-storey buildings made up 21.3% of the total number of apartments commissioned in housing other than individual; in five-storey buildings - 15.7% and in six-storey buildings - 14.8%. Investors other than individual mainly constructed buildings with three or more apartments (85.3% of the cubic capacity of new housing buildings implemented by them). 90.3% of the total number of apartments commissioned by this group of investors was located in them.
Traditional improved method - increased by 3.5 percentage points
The most popular method of erecting new housing buildings in development other than individual was the traditional improved method - its’ share in the overall cubic capacity of such buildings increased by 3.5 percentage points and reached 78.9%. The share of large block technology grew slightly, by 0.1 percentage point; on the other hand, the share of cubic capacity of residential buildings carried out in large-panel construction method dropped by 0.1 percentage point. The share of wooden structure method and other methods was lower than 0.5%. Individual investors primarily used the traditional improved method in erecting new housing buildings, whereas its’ share in the overall cubic capacity of new housing buildings constructed by this group of investors decreased by 0.6 percentage points in comparison to 2016 and reached 98.8%. Individual investors also applied the monolithic method (0.7%) and wooden structures (0.4%).
Source: Production Department of the Central Statistical Office, “Residential Housing 1 - 4 Quarter of 2017”, Warsaw 2018.
