Houses in Poland - 1980s and 1990s

1980s and 1990s

In the late 1970s and 1980s, there was a property boom fuelled by loans from the Soviet Union. This boom has continued, and the trend has been away from practicality, and towards "impressing the neighbours".

The lower ground floor layout has remained in most houses, providing garage space, storage areas, games rooms, saunas and more. As before, these often have their own front door, so they can easily be converted into offices.

The result is that most modern Polish houses are excellent, both for living in and for running a business. The raised ground floor now houses the kitchen (usually the only one) and a reception room, with doors leading out onto a terrace and down to the garden, also a bathroom and perhaps a bedroom or office. Upstairs are the expected bedrooms and bathroom(s).

The style now is grandeur. Not square houses, but ones with contours and definition, large entrance halls, sweeping reception rooms, heavily decorated bathrooms with corner hydromassage tubs and more. Some properties have become disproportionate to the land they are on, leaving the owner with a large house surrounded by a very small garden.