Keywords
housing policy
housing affordability
housing market
Poland
JEL: R31, R58, I38
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Abstract
In recent years, the problem of low housing affordability and increasing difficulties in satisfying housing needs has re-emerged in the broad public discourse not only in Poland, but throughout the European Union. One of the dimensions that has been the subject of academic and media discussion is the issue of measuring the scale of housing problems and precisely identifying those groups that have been most affected by low housing affordability. This article is a contribution to these considerations, as it discusses the results of a study aimed at measuring housing affordability in Poland in 2010–2022 and identifying these socio-demographic groups that are particularly vulnerable to housing problems. A complementary objective of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of housing policy in Poland. To measure housing affordability an original housing affordability gap indicator was calculated. It is defined as the percentage of households whose incomes are too low to purchase or rent a dwelling that satisfies their minimum housing needs and who do not receive adequate external support. The calculations show that in 2022, 35% of Polish households were in the housing affordability gap, a level higher than in 2020 but lower than in 2010. The highest gap was observed among tenants on the commercial market, as well as among large families, single parents, young people and households with the lowest incomes. At the same time, it was observed that the contribution of publicly subsidised housing to the size of the housing affordability gap was low.
Funding
This project was financed by the National Science Centre (Poland), grant no. 2021/43/D/HS4/01649.
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