Good living. What Poles expect from their home

1. good living What Poles expect from their home?

2. 3 2 Tomasz Bojęć Przemysław Chimczak-Bratkowski Dominik Różewicz Karolina Bondar Blanka Chmielewska Joanna Fabiszewska-Solares Piotr Kaczyński Patryk Kocewiak Graphic design: Karol Koszniec Translated by: Wojciech Góralczyk Warsaw 2022 strategic partners: research partner: www.thinkco.pl good living What Poles expect from their home?

3. the ABC of housing the history of modern housing housing in Europe housing in Poland in and around the home what makes a home? an extension of home benchmarks contents the characteristic of an apartment what should an apartment be like? living space in a post-covid world trends in housing approach to ecology housing technologies future scenarios strategic partners notes about us 62 60 44 26 14 12 114 116 124 130 82 138 140 144 102 94 92 70

4. 7 6 Our needs and lifestyle are constantly evolving, and our apartments bear silent witness to these changes. The issue of housing is becoming more pronounced in public discourse. In the media, in political debates, but also in everyday conversa- tions, we increasingly often hear about the availability and quality of the spaces in which we live. It’s easy to get the impression that most studies on the subject of the preferences and needs of Poles are based on analyzing the number of mortgage loans and apartments sold on the primary market. In this publication, we have taken a broader approach, because we see purchase decisions not as expressions of aspirations and needs, but rather as a product of purchasing power and availability. That is why we focus on the timeless elements of good housing, instead of on changing prices. The debate on how we want to and how we should live ought not to revolve solely around square meters. An apartment’s surface area is but one of its defining elements. The functionality and adaptability of rooms, access to sunlight, furnishings, and quite simply whether the space fits us at this point in our life are equally important factors, and to them we have devoted this publication. This report is a wide overview of quality housing – from analyzing data on the Polish market as compared to the rest of Europe, through a study of housing across the ages, to current technological trends and ecology. We also take a look at the idea of a home from a sociological and psychological perspective. After all, it is the most important place on earth. Tomasz Bojęć Przemysław Chimczak-Bratkowski Managing Partners ThinkCo introduction good living | introduction source: Derek Swalwell, Maitreya Chandorka

5. 9 8 key findings DATA ON HOUSING • The housing stock in Poland amounts to ca. 15.3 million units, of which 235 thousand arrived on the market in 2021. It is the highest yearly result since 1979. Poland is characterized by very dynamic housing growth, as compared to the rest of Europe – in 2020, around 5.8 apartments were completed per 1000 persons, which was the highest result in Europe. • Voivodeship capitals and the surrounding areas account for 36% of Poland’s population, but also for 57% of newly built apartments, and 72% of housing in multi-family buildings. The Warsaw, Cracow, Wrocław, Poznań and Tricity metropolitan areas account for 38% of all new housing and 50% of housing in multi-family buildings. • Although officially the average surface area of a housing unit in Poland in 2020 was 75 square meters, in cities it was 10 meters smaller. The number is inflated by large semi-detached houses, because the average usable area of new apartments in multi-family buildings has been shrinking for decades. In 2021, it was 52.6 square meters, with an average of 2.6 rooms per apartment. • 70% of European Union citizens own their housing, which is a far smaller percentage than in Poland, with its over 80%. Ownership is much more preferred in post-communist countries and those in the south of the continent. Rental is the most popular in Switzer- land, Germany and Austria, where over 40% of the population lives in rented housing. • The average number of rooms per person in Poland is 1.2 and is the second lowest in the European Union. 36.9% of Poles live in overcrowded apartments, which is far above the EU average (17.5%). FRIENDLY CITY AND FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD • Over 57% of Poles have indicated that they feel happy in their city. What affects the subjective sense of happiness in cities? 29% of respondents have pointed to access to shops. We also appreciate eco-friendly cities (21.7%), well-communicated ones (23.9%), cities that offer multiple options for entertainment and relaxation (21.1%) and ones that are safe (21.7%) • And what do we find bothersome? Above all – the cost of living. As many as 36% of respondents named finances as the biggest obstacle on the way to happiness, followed by the state of the environment (23.9%), and access to health care (22.2%). We also complain about public transport, and access to entertainment and cultural attractions. • For 61% of Poles, a large grocery store close to home is the most important piece of infrastructure, while 41% see a small local grocery store as indispensable. The equally high placement of package lockers can be seen as a sign of the times. For over 30% respondents, the proximity of a pharmacy or a health clinic is very important. There are large differences of opinion depending on the size of the respondent’s city. Big city dwellers more frequently complain about insufficient parking spaces, while those from smaller towns wish they had better access to services and entertainment. • 53% of Poles agreed with the statement that they appreciate green areas in their neighborhood more than they did before the pandemic. The same percentage of those who have switched apartments during the pandemic named more contact with nature as an important factor in making the decision to move. Access to nature in the vicinity is particularly important to people over 55. Studies also attest to the importance of balconies and terraces as substitutes for private yards. FEELING AT HOME • As many as 79% of Poles like their homes. The things we appreciate about them the most are location, spaciousness, and coziness. Peace and quiet also play an important role. A little over 90% of respondents say that it’s a place where they can fully relax. But that doesn’t mean that our homes are perfect. Only 6% of respondents wouldn’t change anything about their home, which is half as many as in Western countries. • When furnishing their homes, Poles prefer practical solutions and functional interiors – it is the route taken by as many as 87% of those surveyed. That is followed by aesthet- ics and finish (58%), quality of materials and furnishings (57%), and only then by price (40%). The flexibility of a space is growing in importance – during the pandemic, 60% of respondents reorganized their space to reconcile work with leisure. • Our homes are one of the most popular ways of expressing ourselves – this sentiment is shared by 67% of respondents. The most popular elements used to personalize our spaces are plants (76%), photographs (59%) and books and albums (53%) The room in which the individuality of the owner shines through the most is the living room, which is also described as the heart of the house. 9 8

6. 11 10 • In terms of multi-family housing, the average surface area of a new apartment has dropped by 16.2 square meters between 2008 and 2019. Given the limited amount of space, clever arrangement, proper lighting and functionally designed furniture have become very important. POST-COVID LIVING • As many as 75% of Poles declare that the pandemic has forced them to reorganize their home in order to be able to work from it. For 50%, it became more important to have a balcony, terrace or yard, and 41% started paying more attention to whether they can leave their apartment • However, our homes don’t meet the new requirements imposed by remote work, and only 35% of respondents state that their home allows for comfortable work or studying. • During the pandemic, 58% of respondents saw a separate room for work as more important than before. However, few of us had the luxury of an additional room, in lieu of which a workspace was created in the living room or the bedroom. • Only 58% of Poles think that their home meets their needs in terms of improving their mood. Almost 40% saw the opportunity of spending some time alone as one of the key factors in maintaining their mental health. Spending time with a partner, food, and cooking were also seen as beneficial. GREEN SOLUTIONS • What aspects of eco-friendly living are important to Poles? The most important one is lower costs of heating (93%), good air quality (92%), the presence of greenery near the house (91%), reduced water use (89%) and using non-toxic finishing materials (88%). • One in three respondents is ready to pay more to ensure that eco-friendly materials are used in constructing their home. 56% would pay extra for green solutions. The discrep- ancy here results from the fact that unlike reducing one’s carbon footprint, the latter are seen as offering potential savings down the line. The group most willing to suffer the cost of eco-friendly solutions are inhabitants of the biggest cities. TECHNOLOGIES AT HOME AND IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD • Between 2019 and 2021, profits in the smart home sector rose by 54% (USD 36.8 billion), and are projected to continue rising. Both now and in the near future, the lion’s share is going to be generated by modern home appliances, followed by devices that provide communication and control, security, home entertainment, and managing tem- perature, lighting and power use. • The most popular smart home solution in Poland are vacuuming robots. 300 thousand households are already using them, and further 2.5 million are interested in buying one. Other popular solutions are heating programmers and light management systems. • Electric car chargers are becoming more popular in residential estates, as a result of the EU directive that obligates real estate developers to provide sufficient charging infrastructure. The presence of chargers is crucial to the owners of electric cars, of which there were over 41 thousand at the end of January 2022. illustration: pch.vector, Freepik 11 10

7. 12 the ABC of housing

8. 15 14 the history of modern housing 1Until the industrial revolution, most cities around the world were rather small, and their population was growing slowly enough for them to be able to maintain their boundaries for centuries. The revolution changed everything – enormous factories required many workers, and improving transport paved the way for unprecedented urban sprawl. Providing decent housing on a mass scale turned out to pose a whole slew of challenges and problems, the solutions to which we are refining to this day. health and social issues Industrialization has revolutionized cities. Until recently dominated by crafts- men and merchants, they had to now absorb thousands of factory workers and their families. Generally, they did not rise to the challenge, and housing conditions for the less affluent segment of society were criminally bad. Insuffi- cient green areas, no basic sanitation in buildings, and little in the way of ventilation and access to daylight created the perfect breeding grounds for disease. We should also remember the air pollu- tion resulting from intense coal burning required for heating and industry. These are the conditions in which people ex- hausted after hours of hard work – and their children – had to rest. Garbage and sewage disposal, access to clean water – the most basic issues quickly spun out of control in the wake of the rapid growth of urban popula- tions. Cities were also so dense that it led to various social problems – the abundance of dark alleys and the ano- nymity of large urban centers gave rise to crime, and low quality of life resulted in addictions, particularly alcoholism. The dynamic growth of cities did not result in utter spatial chaos, new buildings were often constructed on plots desig- nated by the authorities, along straight, pre-planned streets. The resulting quarters were tightly packed with tenement houses. The ground, street-facing floors housed various services, while upper floors offered apartments for rent. The ones on top floors were the smallest and cheapest, because they required going up numerous flights of steep stairs. Apartments in the side and back annexes only had windows facing the courtyard, which was often so narrow that the bottom floors never saw the light of day1 . workers’ districts Until the end of the 18th century, one of the most popular ways of satisfying the demand for housing were prefabricated workers’ estates owned by industrialists. They were located in the vicinity of factories, some distance away from the city center. They took on various forms, depending on the ingenuity and generosity of the factory owner. In Great Britain, they were usually the province of the so-called back-to-back houses, in which multiple households shared sanitary facilities. In Poland, we find the biggest workers’ districts in Upper Silesia and in cities such as Łódź and Żyrardów. They mostly consist of brick buildings divided into small apartments, with shared courtyards and sanitary facilities. The districts were characterized by their functional layout, simple architecture and monofunctionality. source: Belinda Fewings, Unsplash Cross section of a 19 th century tenement house in Paris, source: Bibliotheque Nationale de France source: A. Gawryszewski, 2009, Population of Warsaw in the 20th Century, IGPZ PAN; data from Statistics Poland WARSAW'S POPULATION DENSITY OVER THE YEARS, PEOPLE/SQUARE METER 0 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 5 000 10 000 15 000 20 000 25 000 inhabitants/km²

9. 17 16 the thinning out of quarter development At the beginning of the 20th century, big cities also started focusing on providing more green areas at the expense of development density. The charge was led by the Dutch, as seen in districts such as Amsterdam-Zuid. A more friendly space was created there, in keeping with the principles of traditional urban planning. Greenery was introduced to the main streets and courtyards of thinned out quarters. Constructing residential buildings only along the outer edges of quarters, allowed all of them to now contain apartments with access to sunlight from two sides, while the streets maintained their frontage nature. The thinning out of quarter development is seen as one of the symptoms of burgeoning modernism which aimed to improve hygiene and sanitary conditions in cities decimated by industry. The smaller density of development was partly required by the authorities, and partly dictated by the new way garden cities The so-called garden cities, based on a concept published by Ebenezer How- ard in 1898, were a radical attempt at countering the problem of dense development. This solution involved creating satellite cities separated from the existing central hub by green areas. The 400 ha area was to house around 35 thousand people, split into six settlements with their adjoining arable areas, which would make them self-sufficient in terms of basic foodstuffs2 . The concept also made allowances for factories and warehouses, which separated the satellite towns from the central hub and each other, meaning that most residents would not have to commute to work. Even though no city that fully embodied Howard’s idea was ever created, the turn of the 20th century saw the delineation of many suburban areas that shared some characteristics with it. The most prominent examples in Poland are Pod- kowa Leśna and the Giszowiec workers’ district in Katowice. In practice, instead of becoming self-sufficient settlements, garden cities turned out to be collections of purely residential buildings surrounded by trees. The idea would become warped even further in the wake of the intense suburbanization of post-war America. in which housing needs were being met – i.e. through housing cooperatives and associations. Their members co-financed the construction of the apartments in which they would then live, which set them apart from both profit-based tenement houses and cost-cutting workers’ districts3 . Plan of a garden city, source: Ebenezer Howard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Typical set of back-to-back houses, source: Clem Rutter, Rochester, Kent. (www.clemrutter.net)., CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. Plan Voisin, Road to infinity, source: Wikimedia Commons good living | the history of modern housing

10. 19 18 post-war housing boom Although functional residential estates with cheap apartments had begun ap- pearing several decades before, the reconstruction of European cities after the Second World War two offered a great opportunity to bring modernist principles to life on a grand scale. All throughout Europe, demand for housing was high not only because of the ravages of war, but also due to explosive population growth. There was enormous pressure to create new housing. Until the late 1970s, various types of social housing were developing dynamically in almost every corner of the continent. Among them were the Swedish Miljonprogrammet, the French HLM (habitation à loyer modéré), and the British council housing. They differed in terms of the financial involvement of the tenants, the path to ownership, and the extent of offered legal protections, but all of them were kept in a simple, modernist architectural style. In Central and Eastern Europe, social housing programs were carried out until the end of the 1980s, implemented on a much larger scale, and characterized by the mass use of Platten- bau technology10 . modernism in Austria and Germany Of particular interest is early modernist housing in Germany, where between 1919 and 1928 as many as 1.65 million apartments were built in residential estates consisting of freestanding buildings with good access to natural light4 . The German state, which had been suffering from a crippling economic crisis following the First World War, was a ripe testing ground for new, cheap and functional solutions. The nature and appearance of housing in Germany was heavily influenced by Bauhaus – a move- ment started in 1919 by the architect Walter Gropius. Buildings constructed according to its principles contained many elements that later became characteristic of modernist architecture – among them steel frames, glass curtain walls, and above all minimalist aesthet- ics5 . For the capital of the neighboring Aus- tria, the 1920s were the so-called Red Vienna period. The city was dominated by socialists and undertook an ambi- tious attempt at improving the living conditions of tenants of overcrowded tenement houses6 . Their priority was providing running water, central heating, and green courtyards, all with an eye towards standardization which would reduce costs. Among the most well- known examples of buildings from that era are the Karl-Marx-Hof residential building constructed between 1927 and 1930, and containing 1382 apartments7 in addition to laundry rooms, a school, a health clinic, a library, and numerous shops. Le Corbusier’s units The French architect is considered to be one of the most influential figures in modernism. His designs were based on a revolutionary approach to the city and his desire to program a comfortable life for its residents. As early as in the 1920s, he proposed the concept of Ville Radieuse, a city composed of tall residential buildings equipped with all basic services and located in a large green area. The city was to be divided into functional sectors, and car traffic was to be separated from pedestrians8 . The key elements of this project were implemented in the 1940s and 1950s in the so-called Marseilles Unit. Suspended above ground on pilotis, the building houses meticulously designed apartments and a wealth of shared facilities, including a sports hall, a commercial area, and a beautiful rooftop terrace9 . problems of modernist housing In the 1980s, Western countries started moving away from social policies developed after the war and towards supporting real estate ownership. A number of economic and social factors contrib- uted to this shift, including problems with maintaining such a large number L'unite d’habitation, Marseille, France, source: Yana Marudova, Unsplash Demolition of the Pruitt- Igoe housing estate, source: Wikimedia Commons source: DCLG, Live tables on house building (table 244), https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live- -tables-on-house-building (accessed on: 10 May 2022) 50 000 0 1946 1949 1952 1958 1981 1964 1967 1970 1973 1976 1979 1982 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2018 2021 100 000 150 000 200 000 250 000 300 000 350 000 400 000 numbers of dwelings private enterprise housing associations local authorities NEW HOUSING IN ENGLAND DIVIDED BY TYPE OF OWNERSHIP good living | the history of modern housing

11. 21 20 of public resources. In Great Britain, the turning point in thinking about housing came with the partial collapse of the Ronan Point residential tower in London in 1968. The next years saw not only restrictions being introduced regarding the construction of residential towers, but also the demolishing of many existing ones11 . The Pruitt-Igoe estate in St. Louis became a symbol of the failure of great housing projects in the United States. Constructed in the 1950s, it was seen as a breakthrough in improving the lives of low income families in the city. During the first few years, 80% of its residents claimed that Pruitt-Igoe met their needs better than their previous residence12 . However, due to the city’s irresponsible social policies, the area quickly became characterized by poverty and, which is particularly important in the American context at the time, were inhabited almost exclusively by African Americans13 . The ghettoization of the projects, their neglect, and problems with finding tenants willing to live in them made Pruitt-Igoe into an infamous symbol. The local authorities blamed all of these problems on architecture and eventu- ally decided to tear down the estate. In 1972, the first condemned buildings were demolished on air. The image of large scale housing estates was further tarnished by class- and ethnicity-based tensions on the outskirts of Paris, the great failure of the Bijlmermeer in Amsterdam, and the intensification of social patholo- gies in the housing estates of West Berlin popularized in the book “Zoo Station”. However, it’s not true that all big residential estates are problematic by nature. Everything depends on the local context, specific functional solutions, the estate’s integration with the city, and above all – on its residents. In some Western countries, these estates were mostly located on the outskirts of cities, were fully state-owned, and their residents were low income families additionally disenfranchised based on their ethnic background. In post-communist counties, including Poland, these estates were from the start inhabited by people with varied income and social status. That is why it’s difficult to find examples of estates plagued by comparable problems in this part of Europe. The excep- tions, such as Lunik IX in Košice, seem to have fully copied the mistakes made in the West14 . new urbanism and onwards Subsequent trends in architecture didn’t introduce as many significant changes to the lives of city-dwellers. Postmod- ernism has liberated buildings from modernist rigor design-wise, and gave architects more freedom, but didn’t change much in terms of the apartments themselves. Modernism’s endur- ing legacy in housing development are the standards regarding their functional layout, access to natural light, sanitary facilities, and green areas. However, the current appearance of cities was significantly influenced by new urbanism, which began with journalist and sociolo- gist Jane Jacobs in the 1960s and flour- ished in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It calls for a return to the traditional composition of cities – frontage-based quarter development, mixing functions, and curtailing car traffic in favor of pedestrians. Subsequent market shifts combined with the fact that housing development became the province of private investors resulted in a hybrid approach combining elements of modernism, postmodernism and new urbanism. Today’s residential estates are smaller, but frequently have street-facing frontages, with the back reserved for intimate green areas and shared courtyards. Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany, photo: Sven Fluck, Unsplash XXXX We like to think that housing has always been important to society. In reality, the significance of housing as a social resource was negligible almost until the end of the 19th century. Today, after over 100 years of housing experiments, we’ve learned some things by trial and error. Over these couple of generations we have found that we need not only a place to sleep, a kitchen and a bathroom, but also access to greenery, light, and hygiene. Sometime later, we noticed that we also want privacy and security where we live. Finally, over the past dozen or so years, we have re- alized the importance of locality and the proximity of services in our immediate area. When advising our clients during the creation and development of housing products, we try to draw on the whole spectrum of social experiences. We take care to not only avoid making the same mistakes as before, but also remember good practices from history. Quality housing doesn’t have to be innovative and constantly reinvented just for the sake of it. Drawing on tried and true solutions sometimes yields the best results, while avoiding generating needless costs and investment risk. Tomasz Bojęć partner at ThinkCo good living | the history of modern housing

12. 23 22 BEFORE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Cities were much smaller and more crowded than today, and often surrounded by defense walls. Small buildings were densely packed into plots. Public areas were limited to streets and marketplaces – which is where city life took place. THINNED OUT QUARTERS The first response to the shortcomings of too densely packed cities was the thinning out of development within individual quarters. Getting rid of numerous deep and narrow courtyards provided all apartments with better access to sunlight, and the freed up space could be used for meetings with neighbors, leisure, and even house chores. The boundaries were still densely developed, and the street-facing ground floors housed various services. 19TH CENTURY CITIES Rapidly growing cities were often ex- panding in accordance with plans de- vised by the authorities, which is why new districts were based on symmetrical grids. Quarters were packed with dense, multi-story tenement houses, in which only the tenants whose apartments faced the street could hope for sunlight and ventilation. The size and density of cities gave rise to the need for parks and introducing greenery to some streets, but given the massive demand, these meas- ures were woefully insufficient. DISPERSED DEVELOPMENT Mature modernism gave us a multitude of forms of residential estates that differed from each other in terms of layout, size and scale. Their common denominator was the abundance of greenery between detached buildings, the distinct separa- tion of fast car traffic, and the presence of comprehensive infrastructure necessary for everyday life – schools, health clinics, grocery stores. Other services and the majority of places of work were located in different areas of the city. CURRENT The multi-family residential estates that have been built over the last few decades seem to strive – though not always successfully – to strike a balance between dense development and a friendly city. Placing services on the ground floors of residential buildings is becoming the norm, as is providing green areas in the shape of small yards accessible to only some of the residents. For the first time in history, residential estates are trying to provide a large number of parking spaces. Insufficient supply of land in cities combined with high demand have created pressure to create housing with as many apartments per property as possible. COMB LAYOUT In the first half of the 20th century, buildings located in city centers still served various functions, but the concentration of services in market halls and shopping centers, along with the deliberate planning of industrial areas allowed for the development of purely residential estates and districts. Buildings did not have to face the streets and could be arranged in a way that gave them access to green courtyards on two sides. THE EVOLUTION OF RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT IN CITIES - FROM TENEMENT HOUSE TO TOWER BLOCK15

13. 25 24 We are a real estate developer who helps clients make optimal housing and business choices. We are convinced that apartments and housing estates should be built in a sustainable way – respecting the local context, natural environment, and social circumstances. When designing our properties, we put special emphasis on two issues – the layout of apartments, and the quality of common spaces and green areas. We make it a priority to make green areas in our estates more attractive – they are enriched with specially selected plants and functional street furniture. We pay special attention to biodiversity, water retention, and preserving native soil. Greenery serves many purposes – it facilitates relaxation, eases stress, purifies the air and serves as an acoustic barrier. An excellent example of sustainable design is the Nowy Grabiszyn estate in Wrocław. It combines functional architecture with an impressive park that covers the area of three football fields. We are also aware of the fact how important the organization of the estate itself is – space between individual buildings, orderly organization of inner areas, proper management of car traffic, outdoor parking spaces, and non-overwhelming architecture give the property a relaxed feel. Add to this some green areas for relaxation and neighborly meetings, and you get the perfect estate. Which is what we can confidently call Wiślany Mokotów in Warsaw, where we have just begun the 7th stage of construction. – We understand that every residential estate is part of the fabric of the city and should be woven into it harmoni- ously. That is why we work together with local authorities, nongovernmental organizations, architects and activists. We build cohesive estates that contain greenery, recreational areas and playgrounds as well as various services. We realize the importance of general access, shared areas in which neighbors can interact. As a result, our estates become micro-cities that meet all of their residents’ needs – says Da- mian Kapitan, Chairman of the Board at Spravia. Spravia housing estates aren’t just about timeless architecture and biodiversity. Above all, they offer functional apartments in which every square meter is adapted to take advantage of the available space. We offer zoning, hallways with storage space, bright kitchens or fully functional annexes, bathrooms with room for a bathtub. As a result, our apartments can serve their residents for years to come. They are also easily rearranged, for example if the family grows. We offer apartments that stand out in terms of layout, meeting the expectations of our customers while offering uncompromising quality. It has been our trademark for years, and we intend to keep it that way. – When thinking about a new estate, we try to envision the people who are going to live there – maybe for a couple of years, maybe for decades - explains Agnieszka Szefer, Director of Prod- ucts at Spravia. We want to anticipate all their future needs in order to meet them. Our biggest passion and simulta- neously biggest challenge is delivering the best possible layouts. We have been doing it consistently for years, regardless of whether the property is located in a cheap or expensive district. source: Spravia source: Spravia a holistic approach to constructing Spravia estates CASE STUDIES 25

14. 27 26 housing in Europe 2 According to data from Eurostat, in 2020 nearly half (46%) of the citizens of the European Union were living in multiple-family housing. Multiple-family housing is definitely more popular in cities, where it is picked by nearly 72% of EU citizens16 . Although Poland places very close to the EU average, there are vast differences in terms of preferences across various EU countries. Detached houses are the most popular in Ireland, where they account for 90% of all res- idences. On the other side of the spectrum is Spain, where less than 34% of the population lives in detached houses. In many respects, the housing situation in the EU isn’t optimal. Studies show that the total annual cost of insufficient help for people who live in adverse condition to the EU economies amounts to nearly EUR 194 billion, and that the cost of improving these conditions would be returned within 18 months thanks to potential savings in terms of health care and social benefits17 Poland as compared to Europe The analysis of statistical data on housing shows that in many respects Poland is faring worse than neighboring EU countries. Despite the improving technical state and quality of apartments, we’re still one of the countries with the lowest index of meeting housing needs. The average number of rooms per person in Poland is 1.2, while the average for the entire EU is 1.618 . At the same time, Poland is second to last when it comes to the average number of people per household. At 2.8 persons, we’re ahead of only Slovakia (2.9). From this perspective, the overcrowding of Polish apartments becomes very noticeable. According to EU guidelines, a household should have at least one day room, as well as separate bedrooms for: adult singles, adult couples, and at most two children under 12 or two teenagers of the same sex. Teenaged brother and sister should have separate rooms. If those conditions aren’t met, the apartment is considered to be overcrowded19 . As a result, the percentage of people living in overcrowded apartments in Poland is much higher than in the rest of Europe – 36.9% compared to 17.5%. In Poland, the main problem in regard to housing is a housing deficit, i.e. the difference between the number of households and the number of occupied apartments. In terms of the number of apartments per 1000 citizens, Poland lags behind the rest of Europe. In 2019, our index of meeting housing needs was 386, which is far below prosper- ous countries (ex. France, Germany, or Austria)20 . Despite one of the highest number of completed dwellings in Europe (221.4 thousand in 202021 ), direct budget expenditures on housing amounted to a mere 0.08% of GDP (1.2 billion in 2019). Meanwhile, the EU average was about 0.5% of GDP, and in countries such as Great Britain, Germa- ny or France the number was closer to 1% of GDP22 . problems to be solved Poland does quite well in terms of the basic standard of apartments. In 2020, only 1.4% of the population was living in apartments without a dedicated toilet connected to a water supply system, which was slightly below the EU average. The issue is most pronounced in Romania, with over 20% of the population affected. On the other hand, in some countries this problem was erad- icated almost completely – ex. in Slove- nia (0.01%)23 . Around 4% of Poles think that their apartment is too dark, which is once again slightly below the EU average. In other EU countries, the percentage varies from 3% in Italy to 10% in Mal- ta24 . Meanwhile, one in ten Poles has problems with a leaking roof, moldy walls and warping window frames. In this regard, the divergences between EU countries are very significant. The abovementioned issues are least pronounced in Finland (4.1%) and most prevalent in Cyprus (31%). The average for the entire EU is 13%25 . photo: Thomas Konings, Unsplash photo: Oliver Cole, Unsplash Poland is a European leader in the construction of new apartments. Despite this, the housing deficit remains a problem for the country

15. 29 PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE LIVING IN OVERCROWDED APARTMENTS, 2020 source: Eurostat, 2022, Average number of rooms per person by tenure status and dwelling type from 2003 onwards - EU-SILC survey, https://bit.ly/3ydENui (accessed on: 6 May, 2022). source: Statista, 2022, Total number of construction starts of dwellings in Europe in 2020, by country. source: Deloitte, 2021, Property Index Overview of European Residential Markets. EUROPEAN UNION 0 10 20 30 40 50 NETHERLANDS ROMANIA LUXEMBURG PORTUGAL ITALY LITHUANIA CROATIA HUNGARY FRANCE SLOVAKIA SWEDEN GERMANY LATVIA IRELAND AUSTRIA CYPRUS DENMARK POLAND MALTA ESTONIA BELGIUM SLOVENIA FINLAND BULGARIA CZECHIA GREECE SPAIN NETHERLANDS 69.3 IRELAND 20.7 BELGIUM 62.7 PORTUGAL 17.3 LITHUANIA 3.1 HUNGARY 28.2 FRANCE 381.6 SLOVAKIA 21.5 GERMANY 306.4 BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 2.4 DENMARK 23.1 ISRAEL 47.9 POLAND 221.4 UK 148.6 BULGARIA 15.4 NORWAY 29.2 CZECHIA 34.4 SPAIN 3.97 4.19 5.45 1.68 1.63 2.89 5.66 3.94 3.61 0.74 3.95 5.15 5.79 2.18 2.23 5.41 3.22 1.63 77.5 NUMBER OF DWELLINGS PER 1000 CITIZENS TOTAL, 2020 NUMBER OF COMPLETED DWELLINGS IN 2020 PER 1000 CITIZENS PORTUGAL 581.91 BULGARIA 575.32 FRANCE 548,75 SPAIN 545.02 GERMANY 514.91 BELGIUM 484.66 NORWAY 484.11 CZECHIA 468.19 DENMARK 463.32 HUNGARY 458.01 NETHERLANDS 455.88 UK 435.86 IRELAND 422.02 POLAND 392.9 SLOVAKIA 381.52 total number of completed dwellings (ths.) number of completed dwellings per 1,000 citizens XXXX The housing market has found itself under mounting pressure – interest rates are going up, the creditworthi- ness of Poles is shrinking, and individual investors are no longer eagerly buying further apartments for rental. This has resulted in a drop in apartment sales and in real estate developers becoming hesitant to embark on new projects. Furthermore, most market analyses suggest that the situation on the housing market will further deteriorate over the next six months. In response to these challenges, ThinkCo has teamed up with service design experts Very Human Services. The result of this collaboration is a qualitative study based on over 90 in-depth interviews with apartment buyers and lessees, which allow us to better understand the needs of customers in the housing market. This has led us to develop Housing Personas – a one of a kind primer for real estate agents and developers on how to effectively reach buyers and lessees. Perso- nas are based on structured knowledge about various types of customers and can be used to easily set priori- ties in the sales and marketing of real estate projects. Przemysław Chimczak-Bratkowski partner at ThinkCo

16. 31 30 HOUSING IN EUROPE source: Eurostat, 2022, Average number of rooms per person by tenure status and dwelling type from 2003 onwards - EU-SILC survey, https://bit.ly/3ydENui (accessed on: 6 May, 2022). source: Eurostat, 2022, Average household size - EU-SILC survey, https://bit.ly/3yl94HK (accessed on: 6 May, 2022). GERMANY POLAND HUNGARY SLOVAKIA CZECHIA BULGARIA FRANCE MALTA SLOVENIA ITALY CROATIA LUXEMBOURG ROMANIA GREECE CYPRUS LITHUANIA AUSTRIA LATVIA ESTONIA IRELAND SWEDEN FINLAND 2 2.3 2.9 2.3 2.4 1.3 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.3 2.7 2.2 2.6 2.8 2.6 2.6 2.2 2.2 2.3 2.1 2.6 2.3 1.6 2 2 BELGIUM NETHERLANDS DENMARK SPAIN PORTUGAL EUROPEAN UNION 2.3 2.1 2.5 2.5 average number of people per household, 2020 1.1 1.2 1.6 1.5 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.6 1.6 1.2 1.5 1.2 1.2 1.7 1.7 average number of rooms per person, 2020 1.3 2 2 2 2.1 2.1 2.3 1.4 PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION BY TYPE OF HOUSING, 2020 EUROPEAN UNION NETHERLANDS ROMANIA LUXEMBOURG PORTUGAL ITALY LITHUANIA CROATIA HUNGARY FRANCE SLOVAKIA SWEDEN GERMANY LATVIA IRELAND CYPRUS DENMARK POLAND AUSTRIA MALTA ESTONIA BELGIUM SLOVENIA FINLAND BULGARIA CZECHIA 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% GREECE SPAIN source: Eurostat, 2022, Distribution of population by degree of urbanisation, dwelling type and income group - EU- SILC survey, https://bit.ly/3yl1pci (accessed on: 6 May, 2022). detached house flat in a building with ten dwellings or more semi-detached house flat in a building with less than ten dwellings other

17. 33 32 Germany Germany is one of a handful of EU countries in which most citizens live in multi-family housing. As opposed to for example Poles, Germans live mainly in small buildings containing less than ten units. However, what sets Germany most apart from the rest of Europe is the almost equal number of owners and lessees. Similarly to the rest of Europe, after the Second World War Germans chose rental. However, they have also stuck with this model to this day, which might be due to the early opening state-owned resources to the influx of private capital, as well as balanced regulation. As a result, commercial rental has remained fairly stable and secure, and housing estates were not subjected to ghettoization, which was the case, for example, in the neighboring France. The structure of the rental market is varied, and consists of professional rental (34%), individual rental (43%) and housing cooperatives (23%). Additionally, professional rental is divided into private and public26 . The last 30 years were a time of erasing differences in terms of the quality of the housing stock between the former East and West Germany. Just before unifica- tion, the average housing surface area per person was 42 square meters in West Germany, which was 12 meters more than in the east. By 2018, that difference had shrunk to 4 square meters, both thanks to the construction of new apartments and the expansion and reconstruction of existing ones. At the same time, the percentage of homeowners in the former DDR rose from 25 to 40%, while in some of the Western regions it is as high as 60%. Interestingly, citizens of both parts of the country are equally satisfied with their housing situation – on a 0-10 scale, they gave it on average a little bit over 727 . sources: OECD/Statista, 2022, Total number of dwellings in Europe in 2020, by country; Eurostat, 2020, When are they ready to leave the nest?; Eurostat, 2022, Average number of rooms per person, Eurostat, 2022, Average household size; Eurostat, 2022, Distribution of population by dwelling type, Eurostat, 2022, Distribution of population by tenure status. 75% 0% 50% 25% 100% 0% 50% 25% 75% 100% 31% 19% 43% 6% detached house owner, with mortgage building with 10 dwellings or more tenant, rent at reduced price or free semi-detached house owner, no mortage building with up to 9 dwellings tenant, rent at market price other 27.4% 13.6% 40% 16.2% 2,80% number of apartments per 1000 people 514.9 1.8 2 10.3% 23.6 years 12% average number of rooms per person average number of people per household percentage of people living in overcrowded apartments average age when moving out of family home percentage of people aged 25-34 living in their family home photo: Gerald Schombs, Unsplash TENURE STATUS TYPE OF HOUSING

18. 35 34 455.9 2 2.1 4.8% 23.3 years 10.2% photo: Ethan Hu, Unsplash sources: OECD/Statista, 2022, Total number of dwellings in Europe in 2020, by country; Eurostat, 2020, When are they ready to leave the nest?; Eurostat, 2022, Average number of rooms per person, Eurostat, 2022, Average household size; Eurostat, 2022, Distribution of population by dwelling type, Eurostat, 2022, Distribution of population by tenure status. The Netherlands The citizens of one of the most densely populated countries in the world have some of the biggest apartments. Aver- aging two rooms per person, they are very much above the EU average of 1.6. This is in large part due to the popularity of detached houses, picked by 75% of Dutch citizens. they are usually two- or three-story tall units in terraced houses with small yards. This popularity of houses in the third most urbanized country in the EU is possibly the result of the fact that local governments have highly developed urban planning tools at their disposal, and have been keeping Dutch cities compact and very efficient for decades. Most Dutch people (61%) take out a mortgage to buy a house, which is the highest percentage in all of Europe. The reasons for this include: significant tax breaks, liberal credit regulations, ex. the option of taking out loans for 100% of the value of the house, as well as a wealth of various mechanisms that limit the risk for both the bank and the loan-taker28 . Nearly one in three Dutch people rents their apartment. The rental market can be divided into two categories: social and private. The first one is bigger – social housing accounts for 29% of the Dutch housing stock29 , though it’s not social housing in the Polish understanding of the term. It is being managed by woning- corporaties, housing associations which are obligated to maintain rents at a level determined on a yearly basis. Although based on Eurostat data, woningcorpo- raties offer market-level rents, the system is so complex that it is difficult to clearly separate their commercial activities from their governmentally mandated social obligations. 75% 0% 50% 25% 100% 0% 50% 25% 75% 100% 61% 8% 30% 6% detached house owner, with mortgage building with 10 dwellings or more tenant, rent at reduced price or free semi-detached house owner, no mortage building with up to 9 dwellings tenant, rent at market price other 17% 58% 6% 15% 4% number of apartments per 1000 people average number of rooms per person average number of people per household percentage of people living in overcrowded apartments average age when moving out of family home percentage of people aged 25-34 living in their family home TENURE STATUS TYPE OF HOUSING

19. 37 36 548.7 1.8 2.3 9.8% 23.6 years 15.7% photo: Shelby Smith, Unsplash 75% 0% 50% 25% 100% 0% 50% 25% 75% 100% 31% 34% 15% 21% detached house owner, with mortgage building with 10 dwellings or more tenant, rent at reduced price or free semi-detached house owner, no mortage building with up to 9 dwellings tenant, rent at market price other 46% 19% 9% 25% 1% sources: OECD/Statista, 2022, Total number of dwellings in Europe in 2020, by country; Eurostat, 2020, When are they ready to leave the nest?; Eurostat, 2022, Average number of rooms per person, Eurostat, 2022, Average household size; Eurostat, 2022, Distribution of population by dwelling type, Eurostat, 2022, Distribution of population by tenure status. France France is very diverse, also in terms of housing. Tenure status is relatively evenly divided in comparison with the rest of Europe – over 60% of households own their homes, with around half of them paying off a mortgage. In terms of rental – social housing is slightly more prevalent than private rental. One in four Frenchmen lives in a multi-family house containing at least 10 apartments. Seeing housing as a human right and being able to seek the protection of this right by the government definitely sets France apart from the rest of the continent. Certain categories of people who find themselves in a difficult situation can petition local governments to grant them temporary housing. If they are not granted said housing despite having met the legal criteria, they can take their case to the courts. In practice, this only ap- plies to cities and communes with a big enough stock of social housing. In other cases, the aggrieved party is usually awarded a small compensation30 . The rental market in France is traditionally highly regulated. Similarly to other European countries, after the Second World War, the state assumed responsi- bility for not only controlling commercial rents and supervising urban planning, but also for developing its own social housing programs, the biggest of which is known as the HLM. It provides apartments to people with low and average income – in theory, as many as 60% of French people are eligible for this af- fordable housing31 . number of apartments per 1000 people average number of rooms per person average number of people per household percentage of people living in overcrowded apartments average age when moving out of family home percentage of people aged 25-34 living in their family home TENURE STATUS TYPE OF HOUSING

20. 39 38 75% 0% 50% 25% 100% 0% 50% 25% 75% 100% 45% 14% 41% detached house owner, with mortgage building with 10 dwellings or more semi-detached house owner, no mortage building with up to 9 dwellings tenant, rent at market price 53% 13% 8% 27% sources: OECD/Statista, 2022, Total number of dwellings in Europe in 2020, by country; Eurostat, 2020, When are they ready to leave the nest?; Eurostat, 2022, Average number of rooms per person, Eurostat, 2022, Average household size; Eurostat, 2022, Distribution of population by dwelling type, Eurostat, 2022, Distribution of population by tenure status. Denmark In many respects, Denmark is a typical example of the Northern European housing system. Around 40% of the population rents their apartments, which is a relatively high result compared to the rest of the EU. At the same time, 21% of Danish housing is concentrated in the social sector. Being aware of this fact, the Danish government came to an agreement with providers of social housing, devoting EUR 2.5 billion for renovations in this sector. In effect, four times as many buildings were renovated in 2020 as in the previous year. In terms of homeowners, just as in neighboring countries, a clear majority are paying off their mortgage. Only 14% of Danish people own housing that is un- encumbered by loans. Denmark also has a separate, unique category of tenure status – there are almost 550 thousand apartments that are part of housing cooperatives. In Copenhagen alone, they constitute almost one third of the housing stock3233 A housing cooperative is a property owned by an association that operates as a cooperative. By joining it, you become a shareholder in the association’s property, which gives you the right to an apartment and to a vote in matters con- cerning the whole cooperative. Joining a cooperative requires a one-time payment of a rather steep entry fee, followed by a monthly rent34 . 463.3 1.9 2 9.5% 21.2 years 3.1% photo: Dascal Debrunner, Unsplash number of apartments per 1000 people average number of rooms per person average number of people per household percentage of people living in overcrowded apartments average age when moving out of family home percentage of people aged 25-34 living in their family home TENURE STATUS TYPE OF HOUSING

21. 41 40 75% 0% 50% 25% 100% 0% 50% 25% 75% 100% 63.8% 10.2% 19.5% 6.4% detached house owner building with 10 dwellings or more rental, public semi-detached house housing association building with up to 9 dwellings rental, private other 24% 60,1% 8,5% 6,3% 1% sources: OECD/Statista, 2022, Total number of dwellings in Europe in 2020, by country; Eurostat, 2020, When are they ready to leave the nest?; Eurostat, 2022, Average number of rooms per person, Office for National Statistics, 2021, Families and households in the UK: 2020.; Gov.uk, 2020, Live tables on dwelling stock; Eurostat, 2022, Distribution of population by dwelling type. The Eurostat data is from 2018/2019 Great Britain Great Britain is one of a handful of countries in which the percentage of homeowners has decreased over the past few decades. In England alone, ownership was the most popular option in 2003, with nearly 70% of Englishmen choosing this model. Today that number has dropped to about 63%35 . This decrease is even more distinct when the sample is broken down according to age groups. In 2003, 59% of people aged 25-34 lived in apartments they owned, as well as 74% of those aged 35-44. In 2020, the numbers were 41% and 56% respectively. The main reason for this shift is the shrinking financial availability of real estate36 . The phenomenon of a large number of young people being unable to afford an apartment is known as generation rent. The key aspect of being part of this generation is the necessity of using the commercial rental market – in 2020 one in five UK citizens was renting their apartment. That’s twice as many as at the start of the century, and indeed going back to the early 1970s37 . This is caused by, among other things, cuts in financing for social housing. With insufficient social housing options, private rental remains the only viable alternative. Private rental is the most popular option among the youngest generations – as many as 45% of lessees are under 35. Compared to 2007, there has also been an uptick in the number of families with children, as well as older lessees. Many lessees pick the option of living in built- to-rent houses. Currently, there are around 70 thousand apartments available as part of institutionalized rental schemes, with another 140 thousand in development38 . 435.9 2 2.4 4.8% 24.6 years 16.2% photo: Benjamin Davies, Unsplash number of apartments per 1000 people average number of rooms per person average number of people per household percentage of people living in overcrowded apartments average age when moving out of family home percentage of people aged 25-34 living in their family home TENURE STATUS TYPE OF HOUSING

22. 43 42 BPI Real Estate Poland operates as “Urban Shapers”, which means that the company prioritizes the active shaping of modern urban spaces that respect local communities, architecture, and the environment. The developer’s properties are characterized by attractive locations and innovativeness, particularly in terms of sustainable development. The company’s trademark is real estate developed in excellent, though sometimes less than obvious locations, that meets the demands of the market and the expectations of potential clients - always using state of the art technology and designed so that it can serve generation after generation. It is known for its un- orthodox approach, with each property being unique. BPI Real Estate Poland has been operating in Poland since 2009. Since then, the company has developed seven properties in the biggest Polish cities: Poznań, Warsaw, Wrocław, and Tricity, collectively selling over 2000 apartments. The BPI Real Estate portfolio includes, among others, the mixed-use Bulwary Książęce in Wrocław, which have revi- talized and turned the run-down Kępa Mieszczańska into a true European boulevard worthy of today’s Wrocław. It is an exceptional project which was developed with respect for the city and its culture, its facades blending with the local architecture, and made using unique materials. The development has taken full advantage of its location at the junction of two branches of the Odra, adjacent to the representative Old Town. It is a residential estate that offers comfortable apartments with terraces with stunning views and a commercial arcade located underneath. Several archeological finds were made during construction, some of which are now exhibited on site. It is the first private exhibition of its kind in Poland. The other finds were sent to the Wrocław Municipal Museum. Another one of BPI Real Estate Poland’s properties is the eco-friendly Vilda Park residential estate located on the Warta in Poznań. The development stands out thanks to its proximity to nature and use of various eco-friendly solutions, such as the planting of over a hundred trees and bushes, herb and vegetable gardens for the residents, and nest box- es for swifts. The estate is characterized by open architecture that encourages social interaction, rich honey-yielding greenery in the patio, as well as yards and balconies that make it easy to relax in nature. The company’s strategy for the com- ing years includes continuing to grow its development portfolio and implementing the principles of sustainable development. Currently, BPI Real Estate Poland is preparing for the launch of seven new developments in Poland, including in Poznań, Tricity, Wrocław and Warsaw. In total, they are going to yield 2200 apartments with a total surface area of 131 614 square meters. The company’s plans include both residential and mixed-use properties, as well as entering the PRS sector. source: BPI Real Estate Poland creating vibrant urban fabric in unique locations 43 CASE STUDIES

23. 45 44 housing in Poland 3 Towards the end of 2021, there were 15.3 million housing units in Poland, which means that the number of apartments exceeds the number of households by about 600 thousand39 . However, the overall housing stock also includes apartments that are not permanently inhabited, including those rented out to tourists, purchased as investments (not necessarily with rental in mind), as well as those that are in such a poor technical condition as to make them uninhabitable. It is estimated that around 7.9% of Poles live in substandard conditions40 . Howev- er, when it comes to factors such as average surface area, number of rooms, or persons per apartment, Poland is gaining up on Western Europe. development of housing stock Over half of Poles live in detached houses41 , giving a total of over 5 million such buildings. Apartments located in tenement houses, blocks, apartment towers and their like account for over 10 million units located in over 500 thousand buildings. Over 7 million of them, i.e. more than half, are apartments and houses built in communist times. Although various construction systems were utilized during the several decades of centrally planned economy, the most noticeable legacy of that era is the Plat- tenbau. It is estimated that around 60 thousand buildings exist in Poland that use this technology, containing around 4 million apartments – i.e. 25% of the country’s entire housing stock42 . Its popularity is above all the result of the mass influx of baby boomers into cities at the turn of the 1980s. Facto- ries located in cities attracted masses of people from the country, permanently changing Poland’s demographic structure. Plattenbau offered a perfect solution – it was cheap and fast, thanks to standardization and prefabrication. What’s more, this phenomenon did not develop separately from Western architectural and urban planning trends, but rather was their continuation, although on a scale unseen in Great Britain or West Germany. The results of this policy were impressive. Only towards the end of the last decade did Poland manage to achieve a number of apartments delivered annu- ally to the market that was comparable to the mid-1970s. Still, media reports that we are currently building the most apartments in history aren’t entirely ac- curate. The more important metric is the fact that in 1974, there were 26.6 new apartments per 1000 citizens43 , while in 2020 there were only 15.344 . Therefore, the number of new apartments per cap- ita nearly 50 years ago was more than 71% higher than it is currently. It should also be remembered that in 2021, nearly 37% of new housing was built by private persons rather than by real estate developers or local governments45 . Thus, in order for any comparison with the past to make sense we need to put it in proper context. size of apartments In communist times, the need to address the housing shortage as quickly and cheaply as possible resulted in a drive to maximize the use of space in buildings. This was to be achieved with the use of so-called housing norms, which were specific guidelines regarding the size of apartments and individual rooms. The first one of these norms was adopted in 1954, with subsequent ones following photo: Piotr Kowalski, Unsplash source: IKEA APARTMENTS DELIVERED source: Statistics Poland 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 0 50 000 100 000 150 000 200 000 250 000 300 000 1 696 600 1 804 602 1 298 635 1 674 700 2 429 400 893 250

24. 47 46 source: Statistics Poland HOUSING IN POLAND OVER THE YEARS COMMUNIST POLAND HOUSING NORMS THE AVERAGE SURFACE AREA OF NEW APARTMENTS IN THE CITY AND IN THE COUNTRY source: Kaltenberg-Kwiatkowska E., 1994, Housing in Poland - “Interregnum” between Poor Socialism and…?, in: Transitional Housing Systems (ed. T. Tanninen), CIB, Dessau. source: Statistics Poland Local Data Bank, 2022. country city number of people standard size of new apartments in sq m 1959 1972 1974 M1 - one 17-20 up to 23,5 25-28 M2 - two 24-30 up to 33,5 30-35 M3- three 33-38 up to 45,5 44-48 M4 - four 42-48 up to 54,0 56-61 M5 - five 51-57 up to 59,5 65-70 M6 - six 57-65 up to 65,5 75-80 M7 - seven 67-71 up to 74,5 75-80 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 199 1991 1990 1985 1980 1975 1970 1965 73.4 70.6 70.7 71.6 73.6 74.6 78.4 79.4 82.8 82.2 87.2 86.4 81.8 86.9 88.9 85.8 90.2 92.7 102.3 87.1 76.5 80.8 78.4 83.9 84.4 82.4 80.5 79,.6 72.8 68.7 68.4 69,.6 62.6 58.4 51.4 47,3 43,.4 127.7 126.6 127.0 128.4 130.5 132.3 134.1 137.2 138.5 137.0 138.4 140.2 140.3 137.7 138.0 137.7 137.5 137.6 134.1 131.9 127.5 124.8 122.9 124.0 120.2 118.1 112.9 109.1 107.6 100.3 99.2 98.4 89.1 85.5 77.3 73.3 67.6 1960 0 10 000 000 20 000 000 30 000 000 40 000 000 50 000 000 60 000 000 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 number of apartments number of rooms number of households population number of apartments per 1000 citizens 237.0 248,0 279.7 289.5 309.6 349.6 392.4 average number of apartments per household 0.85 0,86 0.90 0.92 0.98 1.01 1.02 average number of rooms per household 2.1 2.5 2.9 3.1 3.4 4.2 3.9

25. 49 48 in 1959 and 1974. For example, in 1959 the minimal surface area of an apartment, as well as its furnishings, were defined in categories ranging from M-1 (for a single person household) to M-7 (for a seven person family). The practice resulted in the construction of a significant number of small apartments. After the fall of communism, the average surface area of apartments started growing quickly, but contrary to ap- pearances this growth wasn’t linear or uninterrupted. The undeniable increase of the average size of apartments was the result of combining data about apartments in multi-family buildings as well as in detached houses, with the latter group growing much faster after the introduction of market economy. That is why even though the official average size of a housing unit (including both apartments and houses) in 2020 was 75 square meters46 , in cities that average was 10 square meters smaller, even though it still included detached houses located within city limits47 . The average size of a detached house in Poland is over 140 square meters of usable space, which significantly inflates the overall average, thus muddling the image in cities where 77% of people live in apartments located in multi-family buildings48 . There is no detailed data that would let us estimate the average size of urban apartments in multi-family buildings in Poland. There is, however, data indicating that the average surface area of apartments in newly built multi-family buildings did indeed grow at between the fall of communism and 2008, but after that year it began to systematically shrink49 . Apartments delivered to the market in 2009 were on average 60 square meters big and consisted of 2.8 rooms. In 2021, those numbers shrunk to 52 square meters and 2.6 rooms, respec- tively50 . And it is this value that should serve as the basis for any debate about the condition of housing in Polish cities. differences between cities The spatially disproportionate development of the country is clearly reflected in the location of new residential properties. Although Voivodeship capitals and their surrounding areas account for just 36% of Poland’s population (2020), they are also home to 57% newly built apartments (2021) and as many as 72% of apartments in multi-family buildings (2021). When we narrow our analysis down to the five leading urban centers, it turns out that they contain 38% of all new housing units, and that half of those units are located in multi-family buildings. At the same time, less than one fifth of the country’s population lives in those cities. The largest number of new apartments per 1000 citizens is built in Wrocław, Rzeszów, Warsaw and their vicinity. When we look at new construction sites in 2021, Wrocław is joined by Gorzów Wielkopolski and Poznań. The average usable space of apartments located in multi-family buildings in 2021 was 56.2 square meters, with an average of 2.6 rooms per apartment (which includes rooms with access to sunlight, and kitchens). In terms of Voivodeship capitals, the biggest apartments are located in Olsztyn (58.3 square meters) and the smallest ones in Gorżów Wielkopolski and Szczecin (ca. 48 square meters). While in Szczecin this also translates into a smaller number of rooms (2.1 on average), the equally small apartments in Gorzów are divided on average into three small rooms. Adding numbers for the surrounding areas of large urban centers doesn’t change much in terms of the average surface area of apartments, which suggests that the surface area of new apartments doesn’t increase as we move beyond the big cities. THE AVERAGE SURFACE AREA OF APARTMENTS IN NEW BUILDINGS source: Statistics Poland Local Data Bank, 2022. - 12% Detached houses 52,6 sq. m 2021 133 sq. m 2021 57.6 sq. m 2011 150m2 2011 - 9.5% Apartments in multi-family buildings XXXX Keeping promises creates a good relationship between client and real estate developer. Spravia has a reputation for being reliable because we take every contract, every e-mail, every conversation seriously. We understand that clients who make decisions about purchasing real estate expect security. After all, for many of them it is not only the biggest expense in their life, but also the dream home for which they’ve been waiting a long time. This can cause dilemmas: will the property really look the way it does on visualizations? Will the developer keep their promises? In case of Spravia, that’s not an issue. From the very start, we have been building all our properties in keeping with the vision presented in advertising materials, on visualizations and mock-ups. That is our absolute priority: the finished estate is supposed to be a perfect reflection of the promise from our folder. This requires an honest approach to marketing materials and paying attention to the quality of the work from start to finish. But this is our way of assuring our clients that they have made the right decision – in most cases, a picture of the finished estate looks better than the visualization. Keeping our promises lies at the core of our business ethics. Damian Kapitan Chairman of the Board at Spravia good living | housing in Poland

26. 51 50 THE SOCIAL ASPECTS OF HOUSING IN POLAND At what age do women give birth to their first child ( Poland, age median, 2019)b At what age do we move out of our family home? (2020)a At what age do we first get married (age median, 2019)b Percentage of nesters – people aged 25-34 still living in their family home (2018)c Structure of households in Poland (2020)c Percentage of people whose home does not meet their needs in terms of mental well-beingd women – 26.9 years men – 30.1 years men – 42.6% men – 29.2 years 29.7 years women – 27.7 years women – 29.1% 3.5% single adult with children 12% 23.8% single adult without children 24.7% couple with children 24.9% couple without children 8.6% other with children Activities we see as crucial for maintaining mental health at home sleep relaxation time spent with a partner food cooking 14.5% other without children sources: a Eurostat, 2021, Age of young people leaving their parental household, https://bit.ly/3wb4bOA (accessed on: 25 Apr 2022); b Eurostat, Data Browser, 2021, https://bit.ly/3sls0SM (accessed on: 25 Apr 2022); c GUS, 2021, The Nester Generation in Poland; d IKEA, 2021, Life at Home Report. satisfaction with housing According to a survey by CBOS, the declarative level of satisfaction with housing increased from 24% in 1994 to 62% in 202151 . But does this optimistic result truly reflect reality? Such a large difference between the level of satisfaction with housing in comparison with the 1990s might be related to Poland’s social and economic landscape after 1989. Optimism borne out of systemic transformation and belief that things could only get better were prevalent back then, which also meant that attitudes regarding the previous system were overly negative. Currently, Poles have the feeling that they have chosen the place where they live themselves, as opposed to them being “imposed” by the system. Combined with the fact that a large percentage of homeowners are saddled with long-term mortgages, we have a situation in which many people find it hard to critically assess their current living conditions. From a psychological point of view, questioning one’s life decisions and their long-term conse- quences – which criticizing one’s home would qualify as – would be unnatural and unhealthy52 . An equally important factor contributing to the high level of satisfaction with housing in 2021 is the fact that the constant rise of real estate prices, which translates to limited availability of apartments, have made any changes to the status quo unlikely. This puts things in a different perspective: people surveyed in 1994 believed that they would soon move into a different, subjectively better apartment, and they viewed their current one through that lens. Meanwhile, people surveyed in 2021 have already learned to reconcile themselves with what their current situation and know that things are unlikely to get much better, so they are rationalizing their choices and choosing to see them as good. Doubts regarding these numbers are confirmed by studies that show that the pandemic and being confined to homes have accentuated some of the shortcomings of Polish apart- ments53 . actual housing conditions We should not rush to conclude that the significant increase in the number of apartments in Poland has improved the situation in terms of satisfying the country’s housing needs. The truth is that between 2000 and 2020, the number of apartments rose by about 27% (from 11.85 million to 15 million), while the population remained relatively unchanged54 . However, the demographic structure of the country has changed drastically. Over the 20 analyzed years, we have seen a steep decline in the number of births accompanied by an extension of life expectancy by nearly three years55 . The percentage of singles, including old widows and widowers, has also grown, and the 1970s/1980s gener- photo: Roberto Nickson, Unsplash 61% 55% 36% 31% 27% good living | housing in Poland

27. 53 52 ation has matured. As a result, despite the country maintaining a similar population level, the number of households has grown by nearly 22% (from 12.83 million to 15.6 million), which almost fully matches the growth of the housing stock. What’s more, statistics don’t take into account the fact that over the past few years, low interest rates combined with the ex- ponential growth of real estate prices have resulted in a large number of real estate purchases motivated solely by a drive to safeguard capital, with no plans to finish, inhabit or rent the purchased apartment. Neither does the data cover apartments meant for rental by tourists, and therefore not fulfilling their settlement function. This might mean that actually, fewer families had the opportunity to start living on their own in 2020 than two decades ago. However, the numbers regarding the overcrowding of apartments look more optimistic, as the last decade saw a drop from 47.5% to 37%56 . That is still double the EU average, but given the current demographic trajectory and the constantly growing number of apartments, it is set to improve. THE TOP PARAMETERS OF A „DREAM HOME” Responses from people from the representative sample who are currently looking for an apartment or a house or are thinking about moving, and from the additional group. N=520 green areas (parks, forests) safe neighborhood garden balcony window view air quality distance from the workplace parking space / garage noise in the area insolation of the apartment distance from the city center well-kept surroundings terrace connection by public transport access roads sound insulation air conditioning / ventilation type of building elevator neighbors quick errands health facilities bicycle infrastructure place to walk a dog or cat storage room / cellar footpaths access to entertainment (e.g. restaurants, cinemas) local services (e.g. shops, hairdresser) playgrounds appearance of surrounding buildings markets with fresh products building security (e.g. monitoring, guarded areas) ecological house (e.g. solar panels) utility room (locker) educational facilities sports and recreation facilities common space health food stores modern technologies (smart home) places of self-development (e.g. after-school club) amenities for people with disabilities other quality of housing stock 75% of Poles rate their apartment as com- fortable57 . What they like about most it is the décor (42%), practicality (28%) and the color palette (13%) – which means that the highest rated elements are the ones in which the residents had a direct hand. Problematic aspects are related mostly to the layout of rooms and too small kitchens – both elements beyond their control. Studies show that 37% of Poles pay attention to the proximity of green areas, 34% value having a private yard, and 23% appreciate various conveniences in the neighborhood58 . For those looking for a new apartment, low noise levels and safety are also important. Statistics don’t cover the apartments whose standard and offered conditions make them unlivable or are an affront to human dignity. Close to 19% of existing Polish apartments were built before 1945 – it is in that segment that 2.9% of residents complain about not having a bathroom, and 11.6% about having issues with moisture59 . Noticeably worse conditions can be found in country houses. In 2020, 32% 31% 30% 30% 28% 28% 27% 26% 25% 24% 23% 23% 22% 22% 21% 17% 17% 16% 16% 15% 15% 14% 14% 13% 13% 12% 11% 11% 11% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 9% 9% 7% 6% 6% 6% 3% 1% source: „Happy Home. A Study of the Well-being of Poles” SWPS University for Otodom source: Spravia

28. 55 54 as many as 16% of country houses did not have access to a bathroom60 . At the same time, it should be noted that the situation has improved significantly over the past few decades. Between 1990 and 2018, the number of apartments with toilets, bathrooms and central heating rose by 8%. The standard of an apartment is also influenced by its appliances, whose number is growing. According to data from Statistics Poland, in 2003, 76% of households had an automatic washing machine. By 2020, that percentage rose to 95%. Over the same period of time, the number of households with a dishwasher rose by 43%, and those with a microwave oven - by 40%. Changes in terms of home appliances also tell us something about the way we get our entertainment and information. While the percentage of households with access to the Internet continues to rise, the popularity of devices that offer access to satellite and cable TV has waned over the past few years. Meanwhile, a significant growth in the number of households that own a car (over 70% now) shows growing needs in this regard resulting from overly scattered development and insufficient public transport61 . a dream home Studies show that Poles have a clear vision of their dream home. Generally speaking, the statistical Kowalski dreams of a three room apartment with a balcony or a terrace, located downtown62 . The preferred number of rooms can be seen as a compromise between maintenance considerations and a large enough living space for all household members. A three room apartment will fit separate bedrooms for the parents and a child, and a common living room that does not constitute a private area for any specific household member. This mirrors the decades-old recommendations of psychologists that in order to maintain good mental health and be able to grow personally, every person/couple should have access to an independent room63 . This aspect is so important that it takes priority over good location, and is part of the reason for the continuing popularity of large detached houses6465 . Still, multi-family houses remain the most popular option among city dwellers. Fur- thermore, interest in multi-family housing has been growing nation-wide over the past five years66 . We appreciate better locations, the convenience of not having to maintain a house, and a certain ano- nymity offered by living in a multi-family building. However, it is very important for the apartment to have certain characteristics that attempt to address the needs which would have otherwise be naturally addressed by a detached house. The most important aspects of a dream home for Poles are: the proximity of green areas, safety in the neighborhood, owning a balcony or a garden, and a pleasant view from the window. Here detached houses inch ahead of the pack, but they are rated lower in terms of air quality67 , distance from places of work and downtown areas, and access to public transport. Interestingly, when asked about their dream home, respondents don’t speak in terms of square meters – they do pay attention to the apartment’s size, but approach it from the point of view of functionality rather than a numeric value. When it comes to functionality, it’s not just the number of rooms that is seen as important, but also their layout, access to natural light, and the ability to introduce changes to them over time. This might indicate that the expectations of Poles are converging with Western standards, where the quality of an apartment is decided not by its mathematical size, but by how convenient it is to use. photo: Alexander Dummer, Unsplash source: IKEA The dream apartment of an average Pole has three rooms, a balcony or a terrace and is located in the city center

29. 57 56 RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT IN VOIVODESHIP CAPITALS IN 2021 WARSAW WROCŁAW KRAKÓW LUBLIN POZNAŃ ŁÓDŹ KATOWICE SZCZECIN BIAŁYSTOK BYDGOSZCZ - TORUŃ GDAŃSK 54.8 51.4 50.5 49.2 52.9 53.3 54.9 48,.3 51.9 51.8 53.6 average surface area of new apartments in multi-family buildings 29 686 16 258 13 522 4 528 12 590 6 974 6 029 5 225 4 897 4 891 16 390 new apartments total city Poland Warsaw Gdańsk Wrocław Kraków Poznań Łódź Katowice Szczecin Białystok Bydgoszcz -Toruń Lublin average surface area of new apartments in multi-family buildings 52.6 54.8 53.6 51.4 50.5 52.9 53.3 54.9 48.3 51.9 51.8 49.2 average number of rooms in new apartments in multi-family buildings 2.6 2.6 2.6 2.5 2.4 2.6 2.6 2.6 2.2 2.6 2.7 2.8 new apartments total 234 680 29 686 16 390 16 258 13 522 12 590 6 974 6 029 5 225 4 897 4 891 4 528 new apartments total per 1000 citizens 6.1 10.7 12.1 17.3 11.3 13.4 6.6 4.6 6.9 10.9 6.3 8.0 new apartments in multi-family buildings 115 656 19 426 11 123 11 315 9 314 7 135 4 107 3 357 3 220 3 079 2 627 2 785 new apartments total in multi- family buildings per 1000 citizens 3.0 7.0 8.2 12.0 7.8 7.6 3.9 2.6 4.2 6.9 3.4 4.9 total apartments whose construction began in 2021 277 425 32 956 17 233 15 673 14 592 13 342 10 183 8 727 6 226 4 725 7 199 7 570 total apartments whose construction began in 2021 per 1000 citizens 7.3 11.9 12.7 16.7 12.2 14.2 9.6 6.7 8.2 10.5 9.3 13.4 Data for Voivodeship capitals and their neighboring districts, except for Tricity where the Pucki and Wejherowski districts were also included. source: data from Statistics Poland

30. 59 58 Until now, the housing market in Po- land was characterized by demand far exceeding supply. Over the past few decades, apartments would sell on the spot and it was definitely a seller’s market. However, rising inflation, the war in Ukraine, and the decreasing availability of credit have changed the situation. We are entering a period in which having in- depth knowledge about the motivations and expectations of customers could become key to the future of companies in the housing sector. Real estate agents and sales offices are faced with quite a challenge. Until now, apartments prac- tically sold themselves, all you had to do was present them to the customer. But now that suddenly sales have become more difficult, the market finds itself ill-prepared, because it lacks the tools to facilitate this process. It is in response to this challenge that ThinkCo, in cooperation with the Very Human Services agency, have developed Housing Personas – comprehensive profiles of customers who buy and rent apartments on the primary and second- ary markets. The results are based on over 90 in-depth interviews analyzed by experts. This study, aimed to analyze decision-making mechanisms and purchase motivations regarding the selection and purchase or rental of real estate, and the methods used in it, encouraged respondents to share valuable insight into their entire decision-making process. The result is a set of recommendations ready for implementation by sales, communication and marketing departments. Persona is a report rooted in the reality of the purchase behavior of specific people, and allows us to get a glimpse of their actual motivations in order to better reach them. We have picked this tool because we have noticed that the housing market lacks this type of data, and we know how successful personas were in other sectors of the economy. The real estate market has thus far operated only based on target groups – largely gener- alized market segments. However, these groups are actually diverse, even if they share some characteristic (for example in terms of demography). They consist of many individuals with polarized needs. This is precisely what Housing Perso- nas are attempting to address – not by replacing target groups, but by comple- menting them. Personas are helpful in everyday work because they are specific. They allow you to quickly and easily share key information about consumers, ex. in briefs for marketing agencies. They also allow every employee within your organization to see the consumer from the same perspective, which means that they can ver- ify product or service ideas against the needs and aims of their target audience. It’s a quicker road to making conscious marketing and sales decisions. The results of these studies will translate into practical guidelines for salespeople, marketers, designers, customer service employees, real estate agents, and other members of the residential real estate ecosystem. More information about Housing Personas can be found at: personymieszkaniowe.pl illustration: Ola Dobrzyńska housing personas – a qualitative study that profiles clients on the housing market 59 CASE STUDIES

31. 60 in and around the home

32. 63 62 what makes a home? 4 A home is an idea so broad and so universally vital that we should take a moment here to examine it in greater detail. It is the “central reference point of human existence” because it is where we engage in the most basic activities – including those that are so intimate they can only be comfortably performed at that location68 . There is ample liter- ature on the significance of homes, as it covers cultural, symbolic, emotional, cognitive, but also economic and social factors. In psychology, home is associat- ed with safety and shelter, with privacy, expressing ourselves, reflecting one’s ideas and values, a place where we are emotional. Sociologists see home as the center of family life, a place of seclusion, security and relaxation, freedom and independence, somewhere we can express ourselves and our social status. It’s also a place of continuity and per- manence, a significant financial resource and a space for work and leisure. So what exactly is a home? homes are a places to which we feel connected Feeling connected to a place is a pos- itive emotional relationship between an individual and the space in which they live69 . This particular bond extends across numerous levels – neighborhood, district, city, region, country – but due to the sense of control we have over our little space, it is the home to which we feel the most attached. Still, the term “home” also refers to our neighborhood. Familiar surroundings translate into a sense of stability and roots70 . Together with our home, they constitute our basic living space and as a rule are a facet of our identity71 . Connection to a place is established thanks to a series of elements. The central one is the passage of time. The longer we live in a place, the more we become familiar with it, fill it with memories and associations. We spon- taneously build relationships with our neighbors, but also with local shopkeep- ers, delivery people and other regularly encountered persons. This process is accelerated by a sense of seclusion and low turnover of other residents. That is why people from small towns are more attached to the immediate surroundings of their house, while residents of big cities also feel connected to bigger areas, such as districts72 . homes gives us a sense of security A good relationship with a place allows us to feel at ease, gives us a sense of security and trust within a community73 . It allows us to feel comfortable enough to start thinking about the future. A sense of safety related to one’s home is based on the fact that it’s where we engage in prosaic but fundamental tasks – caring for ourselves and our close ones74 . Feeding ourselves and our families, cleaning, rest – all of these activities take place chiefly at home. When we are ill, most of us would rather be in our own beds. The Covid-19 pandemic clearly under- scored the significance of our homes as safe havens, at least seemingly isolated from the danger outside. The “stay at home” order meant we had to hunker down in the one place we were able to control. Particularly in a time of deep and rapid social change, home is a tan- gible and symbolic place of stability75 . It’s a space we know by heart and one that we feel we can control76 . homes are where we build relationships One of the main functions of home is re- inforcing close relations with people who share the same space. This is confirmed by studies conducted among people who had to spend much time outside their own apartment due to being under pallia- tive care. The presence of close ones was source: IKEA photo: Visually Us, Pexels photo: Chewy, Unsplash A home is a place of continuity and durability, as well as a space for work and rest

33. 65 64 homes provide privacy Spending time with other people, particularly with strangers, is tiring and can be stressful. Home is where we retreat to take a break from our social nature for a time. According to Martin Heidegger, home not only protects us from external threats and the discomfort of the outside world, but also serves as a space for caring for and nurturing ourselves, our sanctuary77 . The threshold of our home separates us from other and allows us to change our status. After crossing it, an employee becomes a father or a mother, a student becomes a child, a stranger becomes a guest. The threshold allows us to control space by creating a mechanism of controlling privacy78 . Controlling access to our home means deciding with whom we are ready to establish a closer relationship and what form it is going to take79 . Home is a space of order, it helps us reduce the complexity of the world around us – and in order for us to maintain this state, it has to be controlled. homes at various stages of life Our approach to our home is in large part shaped by our age and its inher- ent needs and regularities. Even small children prefer specific places, and until they begin their education, home is pret- ty much their entire world80 . Later our horizons expand, but a sense of home remains important as we go through the stages of life81 . Attachment to a specific space is stronger the more activities you engage in therein82 . The ability to nur- ture neighborly relationships might be important in this respect. Feeling like we belong to a community because we live in a specific place reinforces our sense of stability, and neighborly relations shared with other household members provide a common point of reference that builds the identity of a place83 . the most frequent answer to the question what would make them feel “at home” while in hospital. Aside from household members, other important factors included sustained neighborly relations, which gave people a sense of being rooted in a place. The popularization of social media caused our homes to become more open to the outside world than ever before. The traditionally private interiors became backgrounds for photographs, videos and stories. A special kind of intrusion into the private sphere is studying or working from home, which is often related to the necessity of revealing parts of our rooms during video conferences. Thus we have become more frequently subjected to scrutiny in terms of the space we inhabit – its style, size, and cleanliness. The place that is meant to ensure our privacy has become the backdrop of our interactions with the outside world photo: Bench Accounting, Unsplash XXXX At ROBYG, we have been successfully implementing the principles of a 15-minute city for nearly 20 years. Currently, 80% of our properties adhere to this concept. We develop our properties responsibly, taking into account the size, layout and location of the plot, using solutions that support biodiversity and water retention and prevent the creation of so-called urban heat islands. We emphasize eco-friendly solutions, as evidenced by our ROBYG Green Standard. Out of concern for the well-being of our clients, we have also developed the unique ROBYG Human Balance Standard, as part of which we are creating active design residential properties that promote an active and healthy lifestyle. We are convinced that it’s not just the functionality of an apartment that counts, but also the way the entire estate is organized. Benefits for our residents go hand in hand with benefits for the environment, which translates into a better life both at home and in the area. The high quality of our apartments is the result of a number of factors: location, access to infrastructure, but also the high standard of our properties and the option of being able to flexibly reorganize space to match evolving expectations. Eyal Keltsh Vice Chairman of the Board at ROBYG S.A. good living | what makes a home?

34. 67 66 such as stores, bakeries, cafes, etc. The IKEA range of products is rich and multi- functional enough to work with any interior. The only limit is your imagination. What are the other benefits of the IKEA for Business design service? Above all - its comprehensiveness. The project doesn’t have to end at picking out and purchasing the furniture. We can also provide various styles of ac- cessories, tableware sets, textiles, comprehensive lighting solutions, and even plants. With our experienced designers and wide range of IKEA products we can not only ensure that the design is going to be cohesive up to the final detail, but also that you are going to save time and money by purchasing from a single sup- plier. How should I prepare for the meeting with the designer? It’s good to prepare drawings showing the space in question and its dimensions. Photographs of the current state of the space and information about decisions that have already been made – such as the selected doors and window frames, finishing materials – will also be useful. During the meeting, the designer will ask you about the functions you require. If you are designing apartments, it’s good to think about who they are being designed for, who is going to live in them. What if we need to design more apartments? That’s a frequent request. Many of our clients are hotel and apartment owners, real estate developers, and lessees of office space. We can approach this issue in two ways, depending on the client’s needs. We can treat every space individually and prepare specialized designs for each unit. But more often we will take advantage of the capabili- ties of IKEA furniture systems and, after preparing the base design, multiply it, adjusting it for each space. It’s a convenient solution that speeds up implementation. IKEA furniture is not made to size, it is modular – which means that it is created from ready-made elements. With the use of supplementary panels, our experts can adjust our products at the assembly stage to match any space. And by using furniture systems instead of pieces made to order, we are saving time and money. The design stage is over, what now? IKEA for Business also offers sales coordinators who take over once the design is done. They will prepare an order summary along with a payment plan (including leasing) and send over an invoice. We also provide delivery and installation. Throughout the whole process, our coordinators look after the client’s interests, making sure that the purchase, delivery and installation go as smoothly as possible. At IKEA for Business, we give you the opportunity to purchase a turnkey interior – up to the last glass and potted plant. Our designers and coordinators work together to optimize the entire process and save the investors’ time. It’s a fast and convenient solution that guar- antees that once the project is completed, you will be able to invite people into a space they won’t want to leave. IKEA for Business is a place where a business client can get the most person- alized service. By investigating needs and recognizing challenges we are able to create even better living spaces. IKEA for Business offers design services that have found eager users among repre- sentatives of various industries, above all real estate developers and owners of hotels and apartments for rent. Our spe- cialists prepare designs tailored to the needs of our clients, with the option of multiplying them for use in other units. It’s a good solution for quality-oriented businessmen who value their time and keep an eye on the bottom line. What does the design process look like? Paulina Roszak-Krawczuk: The first step is a meeting and discussion about the property – this can be also done on- line. Based on the information provided by the client, our designer will propose an option from our array of services, or prepare an individual offer for this particular project. This includes not only visualizations showing the functional layout of the interior, but also mood col- lages, color suggestions, and a complete purchase list with a cost estimation. This service can be used to design abso- lutely any space: from a single room to an entire apartment, as well as common areas, offices, even commercial spaces source: IKEA Paulina Roszak-Krawczuk interior designer, IKEA IKEA for Companies – what is it? source: IKEA INTERVIEW

35. 69 68 The role of a real estate developer isn’t limited to erecting buildings anymore – it has shifted towards creating spaces teeming with life. That is why TDJ Estate has from the start emphasized multi-family residential development “with a soul”. Our mission is to create places in which we ourselves would like to live, work and spend our free time. We form long-term bonds with our properties, getting involved in the activation of our residents and the lessees of our commercial spaces. We believe that quality of life is improved by strong social bonds. Osiedle Fanciszkańskie in Katowice – the first TDJ Estate residential development – is a good example of this approach. Our Children’s Day celebrations have become a local mainstay, as has Bloom- ing Hawthorn Day during which we join our youngest residents in planting hawthorn trees around the estate. Christmas Tree Day, a pre-Christmas get-together for our residents, is an opportunity to taste Christmas dishes, buy ornaments, and find the perfect Christmas tree – all while supporting a local animal shelter. We also publish the “Twoja Ligota” newspaper where we showcase the passions and talents of our exceptional residents, talk about interesting initia- tives, and promote local businessmen and activists. We are also taking these good practices to other properties – in Pierwsza Dziel- nica, all residents and business owners will soon get to know each other during Neighbor Day. These are all just local celebrations, but we are also actively involved in issues that are important to our communities – we organize con- certs, workshops for children, charity drives, garage sales, support students’ sports clubs, day rooms and community centers. We are particularly fond of the “Safe Stronghold” Inter-Generational Integration Center. We also sponsor sports events and promote local events in which our residents can participate. We want to give our residents the opportunity to establish relationships with each other, which is why we put so much effort into creating shared spaces. Our designs are open by nature, because we believe that barriers inhibit contact. When developing outdoor areas, we make sure that they contain various types of greenery and carefully selected street furniture. We treat each property individually, highlighting its assets while taking into account the history of the area. In the center of the Dobrynów estate, we have placed a courtyard filled with various plants, a community garden, an outdoor movie theatre, and an area for children of all ages. Meanwhile, Fran- ciszkańskie Południe takes advantage of its adjacency to the Franciscan monastery. The estate grounds are going to be connected to the monastery parks, which will create a tranquil green oasis in the heart of the property. In Pierwsza Dzielnica, which is located downtown, the outdoor areas which flow naturally into the Culture Zone will be filled with recreational infrastructure and lush greenery. More information on TDJ Estate multi- functional residential development can be found at www.tdjestate.pl source: TDJ Estate source: TDJ Estate the nearest surroundings and interpersonal relationships are key 69 CASE STUDIES

Good living. What Poles expect from their home

Good living. What Poles expect from their home

Good living. What Poles expect from their home

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