Residential sales holding steady

There were a lot of positive factors influencing the residential market in Q3 2015. Low interest rates continued to support demand among cash investors and mortgage investors alike. Positive signals from the economy, particularly from the job market, translated into a growing demand. Consumer demand has been increasing since 2013, resulting from continued improvement of investor sentiment which supported confidence in making decisions on better housing conditions.

At the same, we continue to see stable demand for apartments of various sizes, while the rate of sales of small and larger apartments is quite similar. Increased interest in higher-segment projects is related to the fact that the buyers who already have apartments are interested in improving their housing conditions and getting either something larger or fancier. We also observe strong demand for apartments from the popular segment, which was powered by the ‘Apartment for the Young’ programme in Q3. The extension of the governmental scheme to the secondary market did hit demand for new apartments. However, the introduction of a threshold reduction for the Warsaw primary market, which was effective of October 1st, 2015, could lower the number of subsidized transactions.

In Q3 2015 cash transactions accounted for app. 30 pct of all the conducted transactions. When analysing the mortgage-involving transactions, we have noticed an increase in the volumes of own contributions, which in our opinion is related to the fact that more and more people buy apartments in order to improve their existing housing conditions. The fourth quarter will not bring any breakthroughs. In spite of developers’ intensified activity, the market offer is stable thanks to a proportional growth of demand. Favourable macroeconomic conditions should translate into further balanced growth on the residential market.