How do we live? Tłoczno. Poland is in the tail of the EU. But we build like crazy

The housing report was prepared by the GetHome.pl portal. To create it, expert Marek Wielgo used Eurostat data from 2020. As he himself points out, a drawback of these data is their delayed publication.

It is better to live in your own apartment than in a rented apartment or house. Nearly 70 percent households live “on their own”. The others are tenants. Eurostat data show that in 2020 the highest share of ownership was in Romania, Slovakia, Croatia and Hungary. In these countries, over 90 percent. residents have their own or an apartment. At the other extreme is Germany, where more than half of the population are tenants. A high percentage of households renting flats and houses is also in Austria and Denmark.

Poles crowd in their apartments

Eurostat measures, among others the number of rooms for one citizen of a given country. In Poland, there were 1.2 rooms per each inhabitant in 2020, which is one of the worst results in the entire EU, where the average is 1.6 rooms. Worse or similar to us is still in Romania, Croatia, Slovakia and Latvia. On the other extreme, there are countries such as Malta, Belgium and Ireland, where there are more than two rooms per person.

Since 2015, the housing conditions in our country have slightly improved, so that then there were 1.1 rooms per person. The problem is that there is still a huge distance from the EU leaders. Hungary was the fastest in our region, where Eurostat recorded an increase in the number of rooms per person from 1.2 to 1.5

– comments the GetHome.pl expert.

More information from the country on

Number of rooms per person in the EU photo: GetHome

He adds that another measure of housing conditions in a given country is the indicator showing the percentage of the population living in overcrowded people. According to the methodology applied by Eurostat, both a single and a childless couple should have at their disposal an apartment with at least one living room and a bedroom. When the baby arrives, there should be at least two rooms in the apartment. Two, up to 12 years old, can occupy one children’s room, but when they are older than this age and are of a different gender, each should have their own. Similarly in the case of adults.

Eurostat reports that in 2020 nearly 18 percent of the EU population lived in overcrowded housing. Unfortunately, in our country this indicator is still one of the highest in Europe and amounts to 36.9%. It may be a consolation, however, that over the last 5 years it has shrunk by 6.5 percentage points. The worst situation in this respect is in Romania, where, according to Eurostat, the problem of overpopulation affects over 45%. residents.

Interestingly, in many Western European countries, incl. in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France and even Sweden and Denmark, the proportion of people living in overcrowded housing has increased significantly. However, also in this respect, Hungary can be a role model, where – according to Eurostat – the overpopulation has decreased by half

– notes Marek Wielgo.

Real estate market. We are building the fastest in history

There is a chance to improve this state of affairs. In 2021, around 230,000 jobs were created. new apartments.

To show how this translates into specific numbers, GetHome used Deloitte data, which the company publishes in the annual report “Property Index. Overview of European Residential Markets”. It turns out that in terms of the number of flats delivered for use in 2020, Poland was only ahead of France and, and these are countries much more numerous than us. Interestingly, in 2020, over 23.5 thousand jobs were created in Warsaw alone. housing, which is more than in many EU countries. For example, in Hungary, 28.2 thousand jobs were created. apartments.

Importantly, Poland is at the forefront of the ranking of the number of new flats per 1,000 inhabitants. We are in third place on the podium in terms of new housing investments. In 2020, investors in Poland started the construction of 223.8 thousand. apartments. Only France and Germany overtook us. In turn, per 1,000 inhabitants, Austria and Romania were better.

and they break records time and time again. The “Apartment +” program was to be the answer, in which PiS promised to build nearly 3 million cheap apartments. A few years later, only a dozen or so thousand premises were built.