Despite rising costs and rents, the rented residential sector continues to ride high as demand booms and is poised to remain a more lucrative investment opportunity than asset classes such as office or retail. Bonard has spoken to leading real estate specialists to investigate the factors behind the sector’s success.

As students are preparing to resume their university studies in person, asking rents in large cities have gone up by up to 10% by the end of August 2022 compared to the same period of last year, according to property platform Imobiliare.ro.

Developer AFI Europe has announced the completion of the Tulipa residential project on a five-hectare brownfield site in Prague 3 Strašnice. This latest, fifth phase with an eight-storey apartment building cost the developer more than CZK 250 million and will be the only one dedicated exclusively to rental housing with 61 apartments.

Marcin Krasoń, a residential property expert at Obido.pl and Otodom.pl talked to Property Forum about the incoming slowdown in the residential market in Poland, the development of the PRS sector and the effects of rising inflation.

PRS (private rented sector) investments, which have been popular in Western Europe for years, are increasingly developing in Poland. In 2021, residential rental investments accounted for €0.6 billion of the capital invested in the country. In response to the needs of this rapidly growing sector, Colliers, as one of the first companies in the market, launched its PRS investment management and commercialization service. The first project of this kind in Colliers’ property management portfolio is one of the newest investments of Atrium European Real Estate in Kraków's Krowodrza district.

LivUp's new investment has reached full occupancy after only one month after launching. Currently tenants of "Puławska 186" are mainly corporate clients, who have settled in high standard apartments. 

Due to the high prices of flats and houses, less availability of mortgages, extreme inflation, as well as the rising price of building materials and labour, people in the Czech Republic are now looking more for rental housing. The influx of refugees from Ukraine has also significantly increased the interest in renting. Under the influence of the enormous demand, rental prices are thus starting to reach the pre-Covida level, and in some places have already exceeded it. According to PSN, the availability of apartments is decreasing and the company is now preparing entire projects for rental housing.

In 2021, PSN has grown not only in the number of collaborators but also in the number of projects and new acquisitions. It sold 294 units for CZK 1.5 billion and completed over 800 leases worth CZK 70 million. PSN's plans for the next five years include the construction of 3,000 new apartments worth CZK 11 billion and it plans to invest another CZK 10 billion in land acquisitions.

The attitude of young Poles towards the concept of property is changing. Property Forum talked to Andrzej Gutowski, Vice President and Sales Director of Ronson Development, another Polish large residential developer, which has recently decided to include PRS apartments in its offer.

Cushman & Wakefield has analysed the findings of a survey carried out by SW Research on a representative sample of the inhabitants of the largest Polish cities. Polish people are increasingly choosing to rent as home prices have reached sky-high levels; additionally, they favour renting for its flexibility and convenience.