Houses built by developers have long been smaller than those built by private investors — this is confirmed by Central Statistical Office data from Q1–Q3 2025. The average individually built house had an area of 138 sq m, while development projects were noticeably more modest.
BIG DATA RynekPierwotny.pl show what the real offer looked like at the end of 2025. In December, the average space in the largest agglomerations was:
- Upper Silesia-Zagłębiowska Metropolis (GZM) – 124 sq m.
- Kraków and surroundings – 122 sq m.
- Łódź and surroundings – 99 sq m
- Poznań and surroundings – 102 sq m.
- Tricity and surroundings – 128 sq m.
- Warsaw and surroundings – 130 sq m
- Wrocław and surroundings – 121 sq m.
The average square footage available in new investments is shrinking
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As Andrzej Prajsnar, an expert of the RynekPierwotny.pl portal, emphasizes, the lowest values for the Łódź and Poznań agglomerations result from the large share of houses up to 100 sq m – even half of the offer falls in this segment. This is the first sign showing how much the average square footage available in new investments is shrinking.
In turn, it is noticeable in GZM, Tricity, Warsaw and Wrocław a larger share of houses with an area of 150-200 square meters – from 12 percent up to 19 percent offers. Houses over 200 square meters are still rare: usually only 2%. market. The exception is Warsaw (7%) and the Tricity (4%), where demand for larger properties remains at a higher level.
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Why are developers downsizing houses? Land prices are key
The differences between the square footage of private and developer houses are not accidental. RynekPierwotny.pl has been emphasizing for years that trends in single-family construction are increasingly inconsistent with the ideas of a “big house outside the city”.
Rising land prices, cost pressure and the need to maximize the use of plots force developers to design smaller buildings.. The more expensive the land, the greater the incentive to create compact houses that are easier to sell and place in terraced or semi-detached buildings.
Therefore, the market standard is shifting towards houses of 90–130 square meters, while buildings of 140–160 square meters and larger are still popular in individual investments.
A punch line that the real estate industry likes
Finally, the question remains: why exactly are new houses smaller? Marek Wielgo, expert of the RynekPierwotny.pl portal, leaves no doubt: – There is one answer – it's about money – says. And it's hard to imagine a more explicit market diagnosis.
