Spatial and temporal diversification of the income affordability of housing in Poland

Abstract

The paper presents the results of research aimed at assessing the geographic diversification of the income affordability of flats on both the primary and secondary markets in Poland in the years 2012 - 2016. It analyzes the differences in the income affordability of flats: 1) in voivodeship cities, 2) between voivodeship cities, 3) between voivodeship capitals and other major cities located in counties in the voivodeship. Measures of differentiation and the Shapiro-Wilk, Fisher-Snedecor and t-Student tests were used. The source of the data used to conduct the study was the AMRON system. The results of the study indicate that: 1) changes in the income affordability of flats in voivodeship cities were small during the analyzed period, 2) the average diversification in voivodeship cities in terms of the income affordability of flats was small, however the differences in the extreme values of housing affordability indicators were high, 3) the maximum differences in the income affordability of flats between counties in the same voivodeship were high, 4) in a majority of voivodeships (11 out of 16), the income affordability of flats in a voivodeship city was lower (not always statistically significantly) than in the remaining counties of the voivodeship.