Cordia continues to expand in Poland: after Warsaw, Krakow and Gdansk, Hungary’s leading apartment developer has entered the market of Sopot, the seaside resort as well, planning to build on the street named after the Polish-Hungarian Friendship Day. With this, the company – having already completed more than 1000 apartments – plans to build some 2600 additional homes across 17 projects in the promising market of the four Polish cities over the following four years.
In Poland, Cordia has already completed more than 1000 apartments, and is close to finishing almost 600 new homes as the construction works of four projects are currently underway. In Warsaw, two stages of Zielone Bemowo are ongoing, with more than 300 apartments being built, while in Krakow the developer is completing some 250 units across two projects, to be finished this year and the next. A further 10 projects are in the preparatory phase, these will involve Cordia building a total of 1400 homes in Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk, and for the first time, in Sopot.
Sopot is a seaside resort city in northern Poland, on the coast of the Baltic Sea, making up the metropolitan area known as Trójmiasto, or Tri-City with Gdansk and Gdynia. The Cordia development is being built on 23 Marca street, considered symbolic as the street is named after March 23rd, the Polish-Hungarian Friendship Day.
Further to the 1400 homes, over 600 additional apartments could be built in Warsaw by 2022-2023, based on preliminary agreements. In an extremely strong competitive field, Cordia aims to break into the top 10 players in Poland by delivering 1500-2000 homes annually.
“What makes the leading cities of Poland attractive is the fact that even in years of crisis, the economy and the new home market have remained stable, and what is also favorable that the reduced 8% VAT rate applies to new homes of up to 150 square meters, while the 23% rate only applies to the area above that. Therefore, Cordia is further expanding its portfolio in Poland. We are working on preparing significant developments, we have serious growth plans based on dynamic demand from both those looking for a new home and those looking to an investment opportunity,” said Tibor Földi, CEO of Cordia.
Demand for new homes is intensified by solid GDP growth, low unemployment rate, predictable wage increase, low mortgage interest rates, and the new government housing subsidy program introduced this summer, supporting families with children buying a home.
As a result, it is hardly surprising that the average price per square meter for new apartments continues to increase. In Warsaw, the average price for apartments at a high level of structural completion at the end of Q2 was PLN 9,200 per square meter, nearly 7% more than the previous year, and over 16% more than two years ago.
“Expectations of further price increases are heightened by the fact that the PLN 9,200 price, corresponding to HUF 705,000, is lower than the HUF 900,000 average seen on the Hungarian new home market for similar high levels of structural completion,” said Tibor Földi.
In addition to Poland, Hungary’s leading apartment developer is also active on the Romanian market: it is building close to 500 new homes in two phases in Bucharest, while several projects with over 800 new units are in the preparatory phase. The company is also present in Spain in an experimental manner, planning to build more than 80 premium category apartments in Marbella.
