During the boom on the real estate market, apartments were selling on the spot, even in the investments the construction of which haven’t even started yet. Today, the apartments in the first stage of construction of the project are purchased not so eagerly, because there are many completed apartments available in the developers’ offers. The primary market has changed a lot over the last few years. Now, one can also chose from the apartments available right away. What is more, they’re not only (like in the past) the big apartments the demand for which is substantially lower.

In the five largest cities with the biggest number of new constructions: Warsaw, Cracow, Wroclaw, Poznan and Gdansk the number of apartments offered at the beginning of its construction (or even before it’s even started) is decreasing. According to Emmerson, about 12 per cent of apartments that are on sale in these agglomerations is at the building stage of a hole in the ground.  Last year, this number was substantially bigger – 18 per cent.

Completed apartment is the most wanted

People who want to buy a new apartment more often decide to purchase one in the project that’s already completed. If they can move in right away they can profit a lot form it. They don’t have to suffer the costs of a loan that they would have to draw down during the construction of the apartment and simultaneously pay rent, if they’re renting an apartment.

What’s more, according to Teresa Witkowska of Red Real Estate Development, those who decide to settle in one of  investments built by the company, can include the decoration of the apartment in the loan. The developer offers decoration in the price of the apartment not only in Poznan’s Red Park Estete, but also in already completed Alpha Estate in Warsaw’s Skorosze. This form of a special offer is especially appreciated by the clients with a poor credit rating. For the same price they buy an already adapted apartment they can move in to and finance it with one loan.

Emmerson’s research show that in Warsaw the maximum price for an apartment that is acceptable by the potential clients is almost PLN 590 thousand. In the other big cities  people searching for apartments are willing to pay up to PLN 380 thousand.

Appetites bigger than the potential

Research shows that clients looking for an apartment usually declare that they want to buy a bigger place than they actually purchase. According to Emmerson, small, two-room apartments are the most popular on the market, because they’re what most people can afford. The preferences declared by the people who took part in the research, differ substantially from what they can really afford. In Warsaw, a minimal size of a desirable apartment is 54 sqm. In the rest of the analyzed cities, a minimal acceptable size varies from 40 to 50 sqm.

One of the reasons of verification of the previous presumptions are the restrictions in the availability of the loans. The creditworthiness of many people proves to be lower than  predicted. The new recommendation of Polish Financial Supervision Authority forbidding banks granting loans for the 100 per cent of real estate’s worth will stand on our way to live in our own apartments from next year on. Today, one can get such loan without any problems. According to financial market analysts, it’s going to become more difficult in December 2013.

The necessary financial contribution

From January on, a person trying to get a mortgage loan will have to subscribe at least 5 per cent of real estate’s worth in their savings. From 2015 on, one will have to have 10 per cent of apartment’s worth, in 2016 – 15 per cent, and from 2017 – 20 per cent for the financial contribution.

When it comes to developers offer (even though it’s getting smaller) there’s still a lot to choose from. According to redNet Property Group, in the smaller Polish cities there’s almost 46 thousand new apartments. It’s about 10 thousand less than last year. This downward trend will continue in the next few months, because the developers sell more apartments than they introduce to the market.

In Warsaw itself there’s about 17.4 thousand new apartments on sale. According to redNet Property Group, in Cracow there’s 9.3 thousand apartments waiting for the new owners, and in Wroclaw there’s almost 7 thousand. The rest of the real estate markets are substantially smaller.