How many Foreigners buy Apartments in Poland?

If you’re wondering how many foreigners buy apartments in Poland, figures provided by the Polish Ministry of Interior and Administration for 2024 reveal that foreigners purchased 17,330 apartments.

For obvious reasons, it is Ukrainian citizens who have become increasingly active on the Polish real estate market in recent years.

I will now present some of the main takeaways from data provided by the Polish Ministry of Interior and Administration regarding foreigners’ interest in the Polish housing market in 2024.

How many Foreigners buy Apartments in Poland? – Polish Ministry of Interior and Administration Data

The following data provided by the Polish Ministry of Interior and Information reveals a great deal about foreigners’ buying patterns with regard to real estate in Poland:

1. First and foremost, foreigners purchased 17,330 apartments in Poland in 2024. That was 2,984 apartments more than in 2023.

Here’s a graphic which outlines the number of apartment purchases made by foreigners between 2019 and 2024:

2. The average apartment bought by a foreigner in 2024 was a little over 58 m2. This does not differ significantly from the data from the years prior to 2024.

3. Ukrainians purchased over half of the total number of residential premises acquired by foreigners in Poland in 2024. In 2024, Ukrainians bought roughly 9,000 apartments.

4. Unsurprisingly, Belarusians purchased more apartments in 2024 than other foreign citizens, with the exception of those from Ukraine. They purchased around 3,000 apartments with a total area of almost 180,000 square meters. Belarusians only purchased around 2,000 apartments in 2023.

5. Overall, the war in Ukraine has tempered the enthusiasm of foreigners, especially citizens of Germany, France, Great Britain and the United States, to buy apartments in Poland.

Where are Foreign Nationals buying apartments in Poland?

Unsurprisingly, Warsaw is the most popular city among foreign investors in Polish real estate. In 2024 alone, foreigners bought over 3.5 thousand apartments there – 3 thousand as individuals and 490 as companies. This is over 20 percent more than in 2023.

Kraków occupies second place (over 1,500 apartments), with Wrocław coming in third.

In Zakopane, foreigners bought only four apartments. The average area of the premises was just over 29 square meters – half the national average.

Interestingly, Warsaw witnessed quite a steep decline in transactions among foreigners between 2022 and 2023. Conversely, foreign nationals purchased significantly more apartments in Kraków in 2023 compared with 2022:

The Two Main Reasons for the Steep Rise in the Number of Foreigners Purchasing Apartments in Poland

The significant rise in the number of foreigners buying apartments in Poland since 2017 may be attributed to the following two reasons:

1. Economic immigration of Ukrainian and Belarusian migrants and the impact of the war in Ukraine

Considering that Ukrainians lead the way in terms of apartment purchases in Poland by a significant margin, the war in Ukraine has undoubtedly had an impact on the overall number of foreigners buying apartments in Poland.

A 2023 PKO Bank Polski report stated that the growing demand for apartments was related to the “plans of economic migrants”, mainly from Ukraine and Belarus. Therefore, even before the war in Ukraine broke out, immigrants from these countries were moving to Poland with the intention of staying in the country long-term. The increase in Ukrainians’ interest in apartments in Poland dates back to 2014. It was in March 2014 that Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, while the war in Donbas broke out a month later.

2. High rental yields and significant resale values of properties in Poland

Buy-to-let in Poland is attractive to foreign investors due to the high gross rental profitability and relatively low taxation of rental income. Moreover, the solid macroeconomic foundations of the Polish economy, especially the labour market, allow for a strong increase in housing prices in the long term. Therefore, foreign investors are fully aware of the possibility of reselling Polish real estate for a substantial profit at a later date.

I believe that foreign investors are taking advantage of greater negotiation opportunities due to an excess of offers in Poland’s major cities. Indeed, as of July 4, 2025, there are over 20,000 offers for apartments in Warsaw alone on Poland’s leading property portal, Otodom. In my post on apartment prices in Poland, I share graphics which reveal the significant difference between the average asking prices and the average transaction costs of apartments in major cities in Poland.