1.5 million apartments are still missing. What do you have to do to support housing construction?
It is estimated that in Poland there are still 1.5-2 million apartments, despite development investments given by decades and several support programs for young people for the first apartment. In this context, there is a lot of talk about the need to accelerate the social development of rent construction, but for this you need land. 800 ha of land of the Treasury was allocated for this purpose, which are found in the national real estate resource and which are developed together with local governments. This pool of land suitable for housing can be up to three times higher.
– In the national real estate resource we have 800 ha of land in various locations, both in large cities and in smaller towns, as well as in rural areas. The vast majority of these lands are already conceived for housing, because only land that we have already identified as potentially suitable for housing – says Newseria Dr hab. Adam Czerniak, prof. The Warsaw School of Economics, Deputy President of the National Real Estate Resource.
– The main task of KZN is to analyze the land of the Treasury from the perspective of the possibility of implementing housing investments, especially investments in social apartments and preparing them to transfer to the commune, in -kind contribution to a social housing initiative or to a special purpose company that will build flats for rent with a relatively available rent.
According to the PwC report from 2022 in Poland, the housing gap was estimated at 2 million apartments, despite the fact that the housing resource in our country was systematically increasing. In the years 2010-20 it increased from 13.5 million to 15 million, i.e. by 1.5 million. McKinsey's research shows that such a number is still missing to meet all the housing needs of Poles. The problem is not so much the lack of flats on a national scale, because the number of vacancies would completely satisfy the estimated deficit, but the quality and location of these apartments. The premises are mainly lacking in the largest agglomerations and their satellite towns, which are gathering more and more clusters of people, while in smaller towns away from the centers there is a lack of residents.
Another challenge is a large group of people in the so -called A rent gap, i.e. those who cannot afford to take out a mortgage and at the same time not meeting the criteria for obtaining a municipal apartment. In areas where the commercial market does not offer real solutions, and housing needs are met only as part of a family, the domestic real estate resource, in cooperation with local governments, develops social housing initiatives (SIM) – building apartments for rent and with the option of reaching property. These are investments implemented in places where they are most needed and at the same time the least profitable for the private sector. KZN is a shareholder in over 500 SIM investments throughout the country.
– The National Real Estate Real Estate deals primarily with the management of the State Treasury land, and the land is what is currently the most limited by housing, especially in large locations. Thus, good land management that remained in the state of the Treasury – their derivative, transformation, rearming, preparation of the local plan or building conditions – causes that these lands are unlocked from the perspective of housing. Thanks to this, we, as KZN, can indirectly contribute to the increase in the supply of apartments – explains prof. Adam Czerniak.
– In addition to this main role, we advise local governments on how to raise funds, both from the state budget, e.g. from the subsidy fund or SBC loan [społeczne budownictwo czynszowe – red.]and commercial sources. We also support local governments in the implementation of housing investments, controlling these projects and advising at every stage, what, when it should be done to ensure that this investment goes without problems and as soon as possible.
KZN also cooperates with local governments in identifying housing needs for a specific area, how many apartments can be built there and what size. As the expert emphasizes, there are several statutory changes that could improve the activities of KZN, and thus support housing construction in Poland to an even greater extent.
– one of such changes that would help us very much, would be Extension of the State Treasury Land Catalog, which we can analyze. Currently, we can analyze 1 million ha and this is only 10 percent. Everything that the State Treasury has in its resources. According to our preliminary assessments, we should analyze up to 2 to 3 million ha of land of the Treasury, because such a large resource is possible to locate investments in housing, especially in social apartments – says Vice President KZN.
Over the past 20 years, several government programs have been introduced to support the availability of apartments for young families. The first of them was Family on their ownin which the State Treasury paid extra for the housing loan installments for the first eight years of the credit period. The program operated in 2007-2012. His successor was Apartment for young peoplewhich could be used in 2014-2018. The main assumption of the program was to allow the acquisition of the first house or apartment by young people by one -off co -financing of their own contribution at the time of payment of a mortgage. In 2023 he was still active for half a year Safe loan 2%in which the state paid extra for the repayment of the mortgage loan installments taken in banks. In all these cases, the help concerned facilitations in taking out or paying a commercial loan.
According to the deputy president of KZN, the effectiveness of public activities is determined not only by the scale of funds allocated to housing, but above all the way they were used. During a conference organized by the NBP in Gdańsk He compared Polish ideas to support housing policy to Austrian. Although Poland spends more on this purpose than Austria – both in absolute values and in relation to GDP – the effects of support are different. In Poland, the model of non -returnable investment grants for local governments and subsidies for housing for private individuals dominate. In Austria, public funds are largely directed to feedback instruments, supporting the construction of rental apartments and benefits for people with the lowest income. As a result, more apartments are created for every euro of public support, as well as the durability of the housing resource – the owners have no motivation to sell it, because rents cover the costs of maintenance.
– The biggest challenge for housing policy in Poland is the continuous discussion and the resulting from various political conflicts – diagnoses Professor SGH.
– We finally have to decide to sit at a common table, discuss all arguments, support yourself, rely on scientific research and create a housing program accepted by all sides of the political dispute, Not for the next term, but at least for 10 years. Housing policy is carried out in the long run, because housing continues, and the buildings that will be created, and the conditions on which we will accept tenants to these buildings, go significantly except for one, two or even often 10 terms.
As KZN indicates, 740 rental social apartments, implemented as part of TBS and SIM, were commissioned during January-March 2025. It's 21.1 percent More than a year ago and more than all municipal, cooperative and commercial rental apartments (725 apartments). Of this, 122 apartments were given through social housing initiatives with KZN, which is the most in history (16.5 percent).
According to the preliminary data of the Central Statistical Office, 62.2 thousand were commissioned in the period of January-April 2025. apartments, i.e. by 3.3 percent less than in the same period of 2024. Developers donated 37.7 thousand for operation. apartments – by 2.9 percent less than a year ago, while individual investors – 22.9 thous. apartments, i.e. 4.5 percent less. As part of these two forms of construction, 97.5 percent were handed over. of all new apartments. In the remaining forms (i.e. in the form of social, municipal, cooperative, company construction), only 1.5 thousand were transferred for use. apartments.
