Analysis of the flat market in Katowice – first quarter of 2015
Text from 2019. Laws, rates and prices may have changed since then. Ask an agent
Analysing the Katowice property market, we can see that for several years flat prices have been rising, and in the last year alone the average transaction price on the primary market rose by 5.8% and on the secondary market by 4.8%. According to expert forecasts, prices will systematically rise in the coming years.
Average flat prices
According to data from the National Bank of Poland, the average asking price over the last year, on both the secondary and the primary market, has been stable. Unlike the average transaction price, which year on year is decidedly higher. The higher value of this variable results from the current situation on the property market. Buying a higher-standard flat in Katowice is attracting more and more interest.
Average asking and transaction prices of flats on the primary and secondary market in Katowice [PLN/m2]
Source: Information bulletin of the National Bank of Poland Regional Branch in Katowice, Statistics and Foreign Exchange Department,
The residential property market in Katowice and in selected cities of the Silesian agglomeration – Q1 2015.
What is more, according to NBP data, in the last year developers applied for building permits for about eighty thousand residential buildings, and the number of construction projects started was as many as seventy-seven thousand. By comparison, last year it was only sixty thousand residential units. Both results are records for recent years, which only confirms that the development industry is growing very fast. What is more, nothing suggests that the next quarter will bring lower profits than now.
– The growth in demand and in transaction prices on the primary market is linked to several factors coinciding. The Mieszkanie dla Młodych (Flat for the Young) programme, which in Q1 alone allowed 831 sale and purchase agreements to be concluded for new flats in Katowice and across the whole Silesian Voivodeship. Another factor driving up prices on the primary market is the new, more restrictive obligations on investors that came into force in December 2014. – analyses Marta Kulawik, an expert on the Silesian property market and Manager of the REMAX Gold Estate Agency in Katowice.
READ ALSO – SELLING A FLAT DURING CONSTRUCTION
The structure of the property market in Katowice
Analysing the market structure in Katowice, it is worth noting that newly built units dominate on the Ignacy Paderewski-Muchowiec estate, especially in the Dolina Trzech Stawów (Three Ponds Valley), on Kościuszki Street and on Mikołowska Street. On the other hand, on the Tysiąclecia estate, in Ligota, Bogucice and Piotrowice, listings from the secondary market decidedly predominate. The only area where we will find a similar number of primary and secondary market listings is Śródmieście. Interestingly, in this district the prices of both new and old buildings are fairly even, averaging 3,471 PLN per square metre.
Number of flats on the primary and secondary market in Katowice, with price deviations
Source: Information bulletin of the National Bank of Poland Regional Branch in Katowice, Statistics and Foreign Exchange Department,
The residential property market in Katowice and in selected cities of the Silesian agglomeration – Q1 2015.
A buyer's or a seller's market?
The property market is still a buyer's market, because the average deviation of the asking price from the transaction price in Q1 2015 was 17.4% on the primary market and 10.9% on the secondary market. Clients had the greatest scope to negotiate the price of primary-market flats in the segment of flats of 60 to 80 sq m, where the average discount is 24.1%. On the secondary market, in turn, the deviation for the largest flats is close to 30% – The biggest discounts from developers in the segment of flats of 40 to 80 sq m result from the fact that 75% of newly built flats fall within this floor area. On the secondary market the greatest demand is in the group of smaller flats of up to 60 m2, and the smallest for larger units, which need a price reduction if a quick sale is wanted – analyses Marta Kulawik
Source: Information bulletin of the National Bank of Poland Regional Branch in Katowice, Statistics and Foreign Exchange Department, The residential property market in Katowice and in selected cities of the Silesian agglomeration – Q1 2015.
READ ALSO – THE FORMAL AND LEGAL COMPLEXITIES AND DANGERS WHEN BUYING A PROPERTY
Prices in Katowice against prices in other Silesian cities
The transaction price per sq m of a flat on the secondary market in Katowice, which is 3,542 PLN per sq m, is decidedly the highest in the whole Silesian Voivodeship. Compared with Bytom, where prices are the lowest, a flat in Katowice is on average almost 75% more expensive, and 40% more expensive than in neighbouring Sosnowiec. It is worth noting that, besides Katowice, an average asking price of a flat exceeding 3,000 PLN per sq m is also found in Tychy, Mikołów and Gliwice
Property market experts forecast a further rise in flat prices on both the primary and the secondary market, in Katowice as well as across Poland. The rise in prices will be influenced by, among other things, the improving economic situation, the building of higher-standard estates by developers and the inclusion of the secondary market in the MdM programme from June 2015. It should be remembered, however, that transaction prices of flats are still more than 15% lower than at the peak of the property bubble in 2008.
