Apartment owners still have little justification for raising rents. Although May brought a clear increase in the number of new listings and in the total supply of rental apartments, tenant activity once again proved weaker — both compared with the spring months and with last year — according to an analysis by GetHome.pl.
Data from Adradar, a real estate listing search engine, shows that in May the number of apartments rented out or withdrawn from the market amounted to around 43,000. This represents a decline of approximately 2 percent month on month and 4 percent year on year. At the same time, the number of new listings rose to around 46,000 apartments, clearly exceeding the figure recorded in April. As a result, the total supply increased to around 86,000 apartments, up 13 percent year on year.
“May was another month this year in which new rental supply exceeded demand,” notes Marek Wielgo, an expert at GetHome.pl.
Gdańsk moves against the broader market
Gdańsk clearly stands out from the rest of the country. In May, the number of available rental apartments in the city fell for the third consecutive month, to around 3,300 units, down 3 percent month on month, while supply continued to rise in most large cities.
This market, however, has long followed its own rules. Unlike Warsaw or Kraków, Gdańsk is strongly dependent on the tourist season. As warmer months arrive, some apartments are withdrawn from the long-term rental market and moved into short-term rental offers aimed at tourists.
For apartment owners, this is a rational decision. During the high season, especially in July and August, short-term rental can be significantly more profitable than traditional rental, with very high occupancy in the summer months.
This is also confirmed by Adradar data. The number of rental listings in Gdańsk systematically falls at the turn of spring and summer, only to rebound clearly in autumn, when students return to the market.
“In Gdańsk, tourists ‘win’ in the summer, while students take over in the autumn. It is an example of a market where short-term rental genuinely competes with traditional rental for the same apartments,” emphasises Marek Wielgo.
In most of the largest urban centres, the situation looks different. May brought an increase in the number of available rental apartments. In some metropolitan areas, the annual increases are clear, and in some cases even spectacular. In Warsaw, supply rose to around 16,200 apartments, up 5 percent year on year. In Kraków, it increased to 7,900, up 20 percent, while in Wrocław it reached 6,500 units, up 18 percent. A clear rise was also recorded in Łódź, where the offer stood at around 3,000 apartments, up 11 percent, and in Katowice, with around 2,400 apartments, up 4 percent. Poznań was the exception, with the number of listings, around 3,300, unchanged compared with last year. Against this background, Gdańsk attracts attention: although supply there has been falling for three months in a row, it is still as much as 38 percent higher than a year earlier.
Rents without upward momentum
Weaker demand and growing supply are translating into stabilisation of rental rates. In May, median rents in most large cities either remained unchanged compared with April or fell slightly.
In Warsaw, the typical rent remained at around PLN 4,200, down 7 percent year on year. In Kraków, it stood at PLN 3,000, unchanged from a year earlier, while in Wrocław it fell to around PLN 2,700, down 4 percent. In Poznań, the median rent was around PLN 2,500, down 4 percent year on year. In Łódź, it was PLN 2,100, down 5 percent, and in Gdańsk around PLN 3,000, unchanged year on year. Katowice remains an exception, with rents still around 10 percent higher than a year ago.
In most metropolitan areas, rental rates are now lower than a year ago or, at most, remain at a similar level, despite a visibly larger supply of apartments.
“With a large number of available apartments, landlords have limited room for manoeuvre. The key priority becomes finding a tenant quickly, rather than maximising the rent,” says Marek Wielgo.
According to him, tenant activity is likely to increase during the summer holidays and before the start of the academic year. However, the large number of available apartments can be expected to have a stabilising effect on rental rates.
For tenants, this is a comfortable situation. They have more choice and a stronger negotiating position. For landlords, it is a clear signal that the market increasingly requires competition not only on price, but also on the standard of the apartment.
Finally, it is worth remembering that the amounts shown in rental advertisements often do not reflect the full cost of renting. In addition to the rent itself, tenants must also take into account administrative charges and utility fees. In practice, this means that the actual monthly cost is usually significantly higher than the amount displayed in the headline of the listing.
“Different models of presenting prices make it more difficult to compare offers. Tenants should always check the full cost of renting and not rely solely on the initial price,” concludes the GetHome.pl expert.
