Andrzej Chodkowski, President of Agro-man
Sp. z o.o. talks to Jacek Świdziński about his company’s development activity and Poland’s residential building market.

Q: Your company has recently won two prestigious awards in a contest organized by “Murator”. What and where are you building?
We are now building our fourth housing estate, having completed three others in the Białołęka and Wilanów districts in Warsaw. We are also building in Parzniew near Pruszków, and we are planning an investment in Wrocław. But I suppose you could say until now our company has been operating on the Warsaw market, and we have been on the market since 1997.
Q: How long do you think the favourable situation in the housing construction sector in Poland will continue?
I suppose it will last for at least next few years. I judge from the opinions of experts who estimate the deficit of apartments at 1.5 million or even as many as 1.8 million. Building this number of apartments must take at least a few more years.
Q: This year Warsaw market will see fewer apartments completed than 2006.
A: You must notice, however, that many building permits have been issued. This offer will be showing up on the market. The Warsaw market is very absorptive because the number of the inhabitants is constantly growing. This is where young people come to look for attractive jobs and as soon as they get a job, they look for a home of their own.
Q: The Warsaw market is said to be the easiest one because apartment prices are highest, but also the most difficult as only some 10% of land in Warsaw is covered by local development plans. What are the greatest worries of a Warsaw-based property developer?
A: The most difficult thing are the formalities – starting from the land development plans through the next stages of administrative procedures, to obtaining building permits. This requires the greatest deal of work; sometimes the pre-building stage takes longer than the construction itself...
Q: It also happens that the developer tries to speed up the execution process by omitting some formalities...
A: It is absolutely impossible in the case of our company – we operate in compliance the Code of Good Practices accepted by the Polish Association of Developers, of which we are one of the founders. It would be more than strange if we thought about breaking the rules we ourselves have set, wouldn’t it? I must also add that we are supervised by the State Treasury which is another reason why we have to observe the law rigorously. Let us also not forget that following the legality of an enterprise makes the image of a property developing firm as one which is able to meet its obligations towards the customers and contractors.
At this moment the prices are stable and the number of apartments offered on the market should expand each month. In such conditions companies which treat their customers with honesty, which observe the law, and at the same time have interesting products – will be the winners.
The Polish Association of Developers, apart from the already mentioned Code of Good Practices, has taken a number of legislative initiatives addressed to the central authorities. They mainly regard simplifying provisions regulating investment activity, especially in the Building Law. The goal is to simplify and shorten the investment preparation process, obviously maintaining all the necessary safety procedures.
Q: The October change of government after the parliamentary election in Poland was followed by an inclusion of the Construction Ministry to the Infrastructure Ministry. Was it a favourable, unfavourable or a neutral change from the point of view of property developers?
A: It is extremely difficult to say at this early stage. Every government tries to organize its work in such a way – including the number and the scope of duties of the ministries – to make it rational and businessmen-friendly. I believe that putting the Construction Ministry within a larger ministry will not pose any difficulties. More important things are: attitude of the decision-makers and their willingness to conduct a dialogue with property developers.
Q: The previous government had an ambitious plan of building 3 million apartments by 2010. Is this plan still realistic?
A: Naturally, plans should be ambitious. But also realistic. I think that it is impossible to build such a huge number of apartments in this short period of time. In a longer perspective, with the current revival in our sector, it is possible and realistic to satisfy the housing needs of our society.
Q: Developers complain about the lack of workers and building materials.
A: This has been a very serious problem recently and shortages in these two areas have caused many difficulties to property developers. But the prices of building materials have eventually become stable, in some cases they even dropped so we can expect there will not be any huge price increase in the near future. Nevertheless, the demand will be still very high which results from the construction of new roads, new infrastructure and new football stadiums for the Euro 2012 championship. I hope the possible growth in the prices of building materials will not have a snowball effect.
When it comes to labour force, we can feel the effects of opening the labour markets by a number of rich “old” EU members. Many building professionals have left Poland. This, in turn, makes us use the labour force which in a natural way had operated outside large cities, for instance, many projects in Warsaw are executed by companies based far from the capital city, where they also take the labour force from.
Q: Your housing estates are characterized by a kind of “Finnish” harmony with nature. Is it a coincidence or a deeper intention?
A: It was our conscious choice and a planned concept, in a way based on the ideas of 19th century urban planner Ebenezer Howard, who was the first to call for the creation of garden cities. Such estates should be in harmony with nature and should blend into the surrounding landscape, becoming its integral part. We want the families buying apartments built by Agro-man to receive more than just a home – we want them to have the comfort of a close relation with nature. We want to break up with the bad tradition of concrete boxes and offer our customers a new quality.