Having considered what is cheap in Poland in another post, I’d like to provide my top five nominations for what is expensive in Poland.
Of course, ‘expensiveness’ and ‘cheapness’ are relative terms depending on one’s salary, level of disposable income and experience of prices and the cost of living in other countries.
Apart from Poland, I have lived in Bosnia, Serbia and the UK. I have always maintained that Poland offers a very affordable cost of living compared with Serbia and the UK.
Nevertheless, there are some things which I find to be quite expensive in Poland, as I will now explain:
1. Monthly communal charges
In my post on communal fees in Poland, I wrote about the extortionate extent to which community fees have risen in recent years. Indeed, I told the story of the flat I owned in Gdańsk between 2019 and 2025. Essentially, by the time I sold the flat in January 2025, my communal fees had risen by over 110% in the years I owned the property. For a 75 m2 flat, two parking spaces in an underground garage and a storage unit, the monthly communal charge for March 2025 came to 1,144 zł.
Of course, not everyone can afford to live in such a large flat in Gdańsk and possess two parking spaces. However, let’s put that communal charge into perspective. As of January 1, 2025, the minimum monthly gross salary in Poland is 4,666 zł. This comes to 3,511 zł net. Therefore, the communal charge for my previous flat in Gdańsk is almost one third of the minimum net salary in Poland. It’s quite astonishing really.
Looking at apartments currently for rent in Łódź on the Polish property portal, Otodom, I’m quite shocked by the cost of communal charges. Just at random, take a look at the communal charges below for what are quite small flats (32, 47 and 44 m2):
The first apartment is in a new-build. Therefore, the communal fee of 600 zł is perhaps not too disastrous. However, the third property, with a communal fee of 800 zł a month, is in a much older building. I’m beginning to think that I’m underpaying for my 66 m2 apartment. I pay 860 zł a month for an apartment in a gated community.
2. Buying an apartment in Poland
I regularly update a post which details the average living cost in Poland. Just recently, I highlighted how the price of an apartment per square metre has skyrocketed in Gdańsk in recent years. Indeed, I paid around 9,700 zł per square metre for my apartment back in 2019. In January 2025, I sold it for 13,000 zł per square metre. Perhaps I could have held out for more money. Nevertheless, the flat required a significant renovation. Moreover, I had received very few serious offers in the long period of time I’d been trying to sell the flat.
The graphic below shows the average transaction price of apartments in Gdańsk in the fourth quarter of 2024:
Now that we’re approaching the middle of 2025, it’s safe to say that it’d be tough to buy a well-maintained apartment in a new-build in Gdańsk for less than 13,000 zł per square metre, or a little over 3,000 EUR.
As for Warsaw, the average transaction price of apartments in the fourth quarter of 2024 was 16,584 zł on the primary market and 15,745 zł on the secondary market. Hence, we’re in 4,000 EUR territory per square metre. However, there was quite a big difference between the average asking price on the secondary market (18,306 zł) and the aforementioned average transaction price. Therefore, there seems to be substantial room for negotiation in Warsaw. Looking at the number of listings on Otodom, it’s safe to say that the housing market is oversupplied in major Polish cities, such as Kraków, Gdańsk and Warsaw. This suggests that there may be reasonable scope to negotiate the price of your dream apartment.
According to zametr.pl, the average transaction price on the secondary market in Poznań was 10,794 zł in the fourth quarter of 2024. It’s expensive but it’s much less than the average price in Gdańsk, Kraków and Warsaw. Poznań is also a gem of a city.
3. Long-term apartment rental in Poland
Next on my list for what is expensive in Poland is long-term apartment rental.
I’m currently renting out a 42 m2 two-room flat on the Słoneczna Morena housing estate in Gdańsk for 2,600 zł (600 EUR) a month. This fee includes a parking space in the garage hall under the building. My current tenants will be leaving the flat at the end of May 2025. Looking at current rental prices on Otodom in Gdańsk, I’d be well within my rights to increase the rent to around 3,200 zł a month in the summer. When you add the communal fee of around 540 zł to that rent, it’s easy to read into how high the cost of living is becoming in major Polish cities.
For a two-room flat in a new-build in the city centre district of Warsaw, expect to pay upwards of 3,500 zł a month.
4. Drinking coffee in a cafe
Drinking coffee in a coffee shop in Poland is not just expensive – it’s an absolutely outrageous rip-off. I have a bee in my bonnet about this topic because drinking a good cappuccino in a decent café is actually one of my top pastimes. Unfortunately, I can’t afford to drink coffee in cafés as much as I perhaps did in my early years in Gdańsk (2020-2022) when a cappuccino cost 9 zł in Sowa Patisserie (Cukiernia Sowa).
As of April 2025, you’d be hard pressed to find a small cappuccino in a Polish cafe for less than 14 zł, around 3.25 EUR. As for those cafes which offer ‘large’ cappuccinos, you may have to fork out around 17-18 zł (around 4 EUR).
I’m not a vegan but I usually request soya, oat or almond milk with my cappuccino. This is because drinking coffee with regular milk tends to make me eructate. Adding any such kind of alternative milk will also set you back 2-3 zł in most coffee shops.
Grand Café in Łódź
Now that I live in Łódź, I often visit the Grand Café, which belongs to the Grand Hotel, on Piotrkowska Street. Coffee prices there are similar to prices in any other coffee shop in the centre of Łódź and other major Polish cities. However, at the beginning of April, the Grand Café did the dirty on customers by increasing the price of a cappuccino by 1 źl and non-dairy milk alternatives by 1 zł. Therefore, my cappuccino now comes to 19 zł – 16 zł for the coffee and 3 zł for a vegan milk alternative. It’s crazy really. If I went there twice a week (or eight times a month) with my wife, who also prefers non-dairy milk, I’d have to fork out 304 zł (71 EUR) a month to drink coffee. I simply can’t afford to do that. I can just about accept the price of coffee but ripping people off who prefer non-dairy milk alternatives is simply unacceptable.
5. Social insurance contributions for those who are self-employed
In early 2025, I wrote a post about my experience teaching English in Poland. It was then that I decided to move away from unregistered business activity in Poland in order to set up a sole proprietorship and become a self-employed English language teacher.
When it comes to running a sole proprietorship for the first time in Poland, it’s not all doom and gloom for entrepreneurs. Sole proprietors can capitalize on Start-Up Relief known as Ulga na start. This relief spares entrepreneurs from paying social insurance contributions (“ZUS”) for a period of six months. Although entrepreneurs are obliged to register for health insurance and pay a monthly health insurance contribution, which also covers family members, they don’t have to pay social insurance contributions related to retirement, disability and accident insurance.
My income is currently lower than the minimum monthly wage in Poland (4,666 zł). Therefore, the amount of the health insurance I have to pay currently is 9% of 75% of the minimum wage, which is 314,96 zł.
For now, I can live with paying 314,96 zł a month to cover my and my wife’s health insurance. However, what will happen after the Start-Up Relief period of six months elapses? Well, sole proprietors can take advantage of the possibility of paying reduced social insurance contributions (preferencyjne składki ZUS) for another 24 months. The preferential minimum basis for calculating ZUS contributions for entrepreneurs in 2025 is 1,399.80 zł, i.e. 30% of the minimum national wage.
Frankly, I shudder at the thought of having to pay those needless contributions, especially because I don’t want to save into a Polish state pension at all. I just need health insurance for my wife and me.
Poland is still the place to be
I’ve provided my top five nominations for what is expensive in Poland. However, I still believe that educated and well-qualified expats can find very good jobs in Poland and rise above the increasing cost of living in the country. Besides, there are so many things in Poland that are ‘cheap’ in comparison with prices in western Europe.