The shortage of housing in Poland is estimated at 1.5 million units. As the Polish standard of living is continuously growing, developers should be expecting a glowing future and their products should be selling themselves without any effort.

Their enthusiasm may be dampened by the Public Opinion Research Centre (CBOS) which claims that most Poles are satisfied with their current housing. Their most recent survey, conducted at the end of 2007 and published in March 2008, showed that that 59.5% of Polish families evaluate their housing conditions as good and 33.3% as average. Only 1.9% of those surveyed rated their current housing as very bad. CBOS notes that the average area occupied by a single household is around 70 m2.

The survey also looked at who owns the accommodation. For 32% of respondents the housing they occupy belongs to them or their spouses. Nearly 29% of respondents are owners of their current accommodation. This means that around 61% of Poles have their own place to live.

On the other hand, 12% of respondents live in the accommodation of their parents or other relatives. Almost 11% occupy housing provided by housing cooperatives. One in eleven households (slightly less than 9.5%) occupy council housing or accommodation provided by their employer. Just 5% of the respondents rent the place where they live.

A great majority of households (94%) occupy single-family housing and their current accommodation provides a high degree of satisfaction of their housing needs. Eight years ago this index was as low as 75%. At that time more than one family in four shared their accommodation with people from a different household.

The area occupied by a single household is also growing. As mentioned, the 2007 survey found that the average is just over 70 m2. A small number of households, slightly more than 4% of those surveyed, occupy housing that is smaller than 30 m2. Most popular is accommodation with areas in the range of 30-49.9 m2 (30% of those surveyed) and 50-69.9 m2 (also 30%). Of those surveyed, 12% of households have 70-89.9 m2 of space, less than 10% have 90-109.9 m2, while 14% have 110 m2 or more.

The good news for developers is that respondents unanimously agreed that their current housing has too few rooms and they would like to move into bigger accomodation. Those who are planning to purchase their first home would also like to live more comfortably than they do now. One-bedroom housing is the least popular – only 5% of respondents would like this type of dwelling. However, 23.5% of Poles would be happy with two bedrooms. Around 33% of Poles would like to have a three bedroom. Slightly fewer (31.4%) are dreaming of four- or five-bedroom accommodation. Fewer than 6% of families need six- or seven-bedroom housing, while 1% would like even more.

Poles clearly prefer detached houses and low-rise apartment blocks. According to the survey, nearly 38% of Polish families live in one-family detached houses. Slightly fewer than 37% live in apartments located in multi-family buildings of up to five storeys. Apartment blocks over five storeys are home to 11.5% of Poles, small multi-family buildings are occupied by almost 9%, and terraced or semi-detached houses by slightly more than 4%. Only 0.4% of Poles live in huts or other accommodation of a very low standard.

Over 90% of the homes are equipped with basic facilities including gas, electricity, water and a bathroom containing a bathtub or shower and a toilet flushed with running water. Around 86.7% of homes are equipped with central heating. About 33% of Poles admit they need to renovate or fit out their apartments but cannot afford it.

For developers the results are both good and bad. While the survey found that living conditions are usually evaluated in a positive way and most families are satisfied with their current living arrangements, many Poles would like to upgrade to something larger.