Housebuilders in Poland have had their best successive four quarters since the fourth quarter of 2007, according to Warsaw-based residential property adviser REAS.
During the past four quarters, a total of 28,600 units were sold in the markets analysed, 27% more than in 2009 and over 13% more than in 2008.
But the Jones Lang LaSalle partner found that at the end of the first quarter of this year supply grew again owing to the launch of new projects, and to the temporary suspension, because of the crisis, of a fresh marketing push for many developments.
Consequently, supply in the six markets of Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Tri-City, Poznan and Lodz rose for the sixth subsequent quarter and is 36% higher than a year ago.
The number of completed, unsold units increased slightly compared with the previous quarter. At the end of March there were around 4,300 such units in Warsaw, similar to several previous quarters.
In total, residential markets in the six main markets offered slightly over 9,800 completed unsold units, which is a 4% increase within a year.
Stable financing conditions and the decreasing floor area of built units contributed to the favourable number of sales.
However, developers are indicating that they will launch more new homes onto the market than in 2010. Given present surplus of supply over demand, house prices are most likely to continue slowly falling.
