20 percent of apartments in Warsaw are empty. A return to the market would increase the availability of apartments and lower rental prices slightly. For this to happen, all you have to do is charge for empty apartments. But who will accept such a bill if there are so many rentiers even among the deputies?
Large cities are overpopulated due to high housing prices. During the 22 years of the 21st century, Poznań lost 42,000 inhabitants in this way. The estimated price per square meter in Warsaw is 14,700 PLN – during 2023 it increased by 22.99%. Similar to Krakow or even Tricity.
At the same time, the number of investment, capital investment apartments, which do not perform a residential function, is increasing. They stand empty. In Warsaw, more than a million apartments, almost 207,000. It is currently uninhabited. More than 10,000 of them are municipal apartments.
If even half of these apartments were to come on the market, purchase and rental prices would drop dramatically. This whole speculative crisis could end – that would be enough Fee for empty apartments, starting, say, from the third. The problem, however, is that those who decide to do so usually find themselves benefiting from speculatively inflated housing prices. Because most politicians “invested” in real estate a long time ago.
A solution to absurdly expensive apartments? A politically incorrect tax
In the December text MPs like rentiers “Gazeta Wyborcza” wrote: “Deputy of the Civic Coalition, Malgorzata Janiska, has eight properties, from which – according to her statement – she has no income. His party colleague Stanislav Gorchika, on the other hand, owns seven properties. And they don't earn any income either. A similar approach is taken by more than 20 MPs who own at least three properties and do not report rental income. It is clear from the parliamentarians' property declarations that they buy apartments and, as a rule, it is only an investment, because they do not rent and do not live there. With such a composition, the Sejm is unlikely to accept a tax on vacant buildings, because it is against the purely financial-class interests of the elected members of the nation who sit in it.
“According to research centers, there is a shortage of approximately 1.5-2 million apartments in Poland. At the same time, according to the data of the Central Statistics Office, about 1.8 million buildings are empty,” reports money.pl. Of course, some of these empty buildings are worthless ruins; Others are located somewhere no one wants to live because there are no prospects. However, most of them must go to the market if there is ever to be a “political will” capable of breaking the class selfishness of the superiors.
The PiS government even announced such a tax, but did not introduce it. As a rule, such a tax is introduced by local authorities. This is the case, for example, in Vancouver, Canada, or Leuven, Belgium, where you pay 1,000 euros per year for a room in an empty apartment.
Vacancies are quite common in developed countries. In the Eurozone, it is 10 percent. All apartments, and in the United States 12.7 percent, while in Warsaw – about 20 percent.
Many landlords say that renting is too risky. However, they only note that they believe tenant protections are very strong. Meanwhile, the problem lies in the rental price, the relationship between income and rent. Many potential tenants cannot afford to pay their entire monthly rent on a regular basis. Sooner or later they fall behind on the rent. And even if they were to be kicked out immediately by law, it would not result in more solvent people. Tenants are people who have been denied a home loan due to low or unstable income. And these “solvent” people are already paying for their own apartments. As a result, loosening regulations will only lead to more turnover, but in the free market most tenants are already delinquent and will continue to delinquent because they can't afford to pay.
However, if it were possible to make real estate investments less profitable, if the corresponding tax made it unprofitable to maintain empty apartments, the supply would increase significantly. Then housing prices will fall and people will no longer have rent arrears. Profits will be smaller, but more certain. This tool improves the housing situation faster and at a lower cost than expensive construction projects. Moreover, it is more rational and ecological because it allows optimal use of existing resources.
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The depopulation of cities due to speculatively inflated housing prices also has a class dimension. This causes the poor and the young to leave the big cities. This does not mean that they find employment in the suburbs of the big cities or in the surrounding towns to which they move. On the contrary, they still go to work in the metropolis, standing in endless traffic jams. But it can soon become difficult because, just like in Warsaw or Krakow, you won't be able to drive an old (cheap) car there either.
The people of Warsaw who once rebuilt the capital to live there are now displaced from Śródmieście and other central areas. A way to stay in the city close to the center is to rent a municipal apartment. However, the stock of such apartments is decreasing as a result of privatization (buying at a discount, reprivatization) and new ones are hardly being built.
Part of the city's resources are destroyed due to constant neglect. The city is a bad host and gets rid of property when it can. However, if we gave the keys to the people on the housing queue and allowed them to occupy the 10,200 vacant city buildings, the housing queue would disappear. However, this does not mean that the housing problem will be solved – the queue is short only because of the restrictive criteria, which makes it difficult to receive housing assistance from the commune.
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In an act of December 16, 2020, the PiS government introduced the “building for land” mechanism, which allows developers to stipulate, when selling construction land, that part of the price will be transferred to newly built apartments, which will increase. Commune housing fund. The act came into force in April 2021, but it seems that it is not flat and will not be. Once again, the economic interests of decision makers stand in the way. Every fourth councilor of the Warsaw Council is a millionaire. Also: many of them are investors who bought apartments thinking their prices would go up. And any increase in housing affordability at lower rental prices will reduce the value of their investments.
It was already the case that local authorities could use EU funds to build municipal flats or shelters. Most of the communes chose to stay overnight.
Speculation in the real estate market is a constant mechanism for the enrichment of elites in capitalism. With each exorbitant rent payment, the stratification increases. Money flows from the bottom up. Buyers believe that apartment prices will never stop and they can only make money by raising prices without making apartments affordable. But all speculative bubbles eventually burst. And then the state, which saved money to rent cheap buildings, will find money to save banks and developers. Because, contrary to what the authorities say, money is there, not for us. It was like this in 2008 in the USA and it will be like this in our country.
Before our eyes, corporations are tearing down the glass and steel skyscrapers that were built just a few years ago. In their place they will build even higher skyscrapers and office buildings. We have the largest unused office space in Europe in Warsaw. And new ones are still being created. Business revolves around the devilish rhythm of making huge sums of money at the expense of the environment and itself. Pointless, but profitable. Who will ban the rich?
In a world where food is being destroyed to maintain prices, even though people are still starving, this waste should come as no surprise. This is how money and markets work. If the people were in charge, we would build beautiful residential buildings in the place of these skyscrapers, with lots of green space between the houses and excellent public infrastructure. Our land is worth a lot if a capitalist mastodon is playing on it with billions of blocks. If the city authorities were on our side, we would get them the apartments they need. But the president and his entourage are complicit in this construction paranoia and housing speculation.
Housing is a right, not a commodity – a story of misunderstanding
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The fact that it is possible to build municipal apartments is proven by the example of Wlocławek, where two buildings with 144 apartments have recently been commissioned on Celulosova Street and are still under construction. The only sad thing is that this excellent result for a small town becomes a national power because, according to the vice-president of the town, in 2022, the number of apartments built in Włocławek will be 43%. All municipal apartments were completed that year in the country.
The industry of Velozlavek was plowed by Balcerovic. Only the name of the street where the residential buildings were built remains for the famous “Cellulosa”. I remember a time when every grocery store had a security guard and little boys stood on curbs with rusty nails offering to “watch the car.” Out of this poverty, for some reason, left-wing local governments were born and apartments were built.
The housing problem is a wall facing young people. Local elections are approaching. We are trying to have more such Wlocslavek!
(tags translated) Fajer 2-2