Łódź property market: prices, rents and yields in Poland's value city

Apartments in Łódź were listed at an average of €1,968.4/m² in Q3 2026 according to CASAFARI Area Insights, the source of the asking-price and rent series (asking prices from indexed listings, not transaction prices), up 4.6% on a year earlier but almost unchanged for three quarters. That is the lowest level among Poland's seven largest cities: the National Bank of Poland recorded 9,945 zł/m² for new-build transactions in Q2 2026 against 16,783 zł/m² in Warsaw. Asking rents of €12.5/m² a month give an indicative gross yield of about 7.6%, balanced against demography and developer oversupply.

How much does an apartment in Łódź cost in 2026?

Imagine an investor in Berlin or Lisbon scrolling through Polish property portals on a Sunday evening. A 45 m² two-room flat near a tram stop in Łódź comes up at roughly 40% less than a comparable listing in Warsaw, and the immediate question is whether the number is real or what the catch might be. The short answer is that both the low entry price and the caveats behind it are very real.

In Q3 2026, the average asking price for apartments in Łódź stood at €1,968.4/m² in CASAFARI Area Insights (city location id 6284892, computed from active listings with outliers excluded). At that average, a 45 m² apartment is advertised at around €88,600. Because CASAFARI standardises cross-border series in euro while Polish deeds are signed in złoty, it helps to put official transaction figures alongside the listing data.

According to NBP transaction prices for Q2 2026, as reported by PAP Biznes from the central bank's (Narodowy Bank Polski, NBP) BaRN survey, buyers actually paid an average of 9,945 zł/m² for new-build apartments in Łódź and 8,020 zł/m² on the resale market in Q2 2026 (preliminary figures). That resale rate puts a typical 45 m² flat at around 360,000 zł, making Łódź the most affordable of the 17 regional cities surveyed by NBP.

There is also a telling gap between what sellers ask and what buyers sign for. In NBP's Q2 2026 primary-market data, developers' average offer price in Łódź was 11,837 zł/m² against the 9,945 zł/m² transaction average — a difference of about 16%. For a buyer walking into a sales office, that spread is not a statistical error; it is a clear signal of room to negotiate on price, parking spaces or fit-out packages.

Where is Łódź and why does it matter to the Polish housing map?

For a reader who has never stepped off the train at Łódź Fabryczna, the city sits right in the middle of Poland, about 120 km south-west of Warsaw at the junction of the A1 (north–south) and A2 (east–west, Berlin–Warsaw) motorways. That crossing has made the surrounding corridor around Stryków and Piotrków Trybunalski one of Central Europe's largest logistics hubs, while the city itself is Poland's third or fourth largest by population.

Administratively and in daily market talk, Łódź divides into five districts:

• Śródmieście: the dense nineteenth-century core along Piotrkowska Street, defined by pre-war tenement houses (kamienice), cultural life and municipal regeneration blocks.
• Bałuty: north of the centre, mixing post-war prefabricated housing estates with older low-rise streets; traditionally the most affordable part of the city.
• Widzew: to the east, combining major university campuses, residential estates and the heaviest concentration of new residential development.
• Górna: the southern district of former factory settlements, post-war blocks and quiet residential pockets.
• Polesie: stretching westwards from the centre past the vast Źródliska and Zdrowie parks toward the airport and the Retkinia housing estate.

The physical anchor of the modern market is Nowe Centrum Łodzi (the New Centre of Łódź), a 100-hectare regeneration zone around the underground Łódź Fabryczna railway station and the restored EC1 power plant. Beneath the city, a cross-city rail tunnel linking Łódź Fabryczna with Łódź Kaliska and Łódź Żabieniec is under construction to turn a terminus into a through-hub, alongside a planned Warsaw–Łódź high-speed rail line.

What gives the city its distinct texture is the way its nineteenth-century textile heritage has been converted into contemporary living and working space. Complexes such as Manufaktura, OFF Piotrkowska and Monopolis have turned red-brick spinning mills and vodka distilleries into restaurants, BPO offices and loft apartments, setting the benchmark for top-end prices in the centre.

Are prices in Łódź still rising?

After a noticeable catch-up in the second half of 2025, asking prices in Łódź have reached a plateau. In CASAFARI Area Insights, the average asking price for apartments moved from €1,783.1/m² in Q2 2025 to €1,882.4/m² in Q3 2025 and €1,953.4/m² in Q4 2025, before flattening across 2026: €1,959.7/m² in Q1, €1,967.2/m² in Q2 and €1,968.4/m² in Q3 2026. That represents +10.4% over the five quarters since Q2 2025 and +4.6% year on year (Q3 2026 versus Q3 2025), but only +0.8% across the last three quarters combined. (Earlier quarters in the CASAFARI database carried repeated placeholder values due to sparse coverage prior to Q2 2025 and are therefore excluded from trend analysis.)

Official złoty indices from the central bank and the statistics office (Główny Urząd Statystyczny, GUS) tell the same story of a market taking a breath. In NBP's Q2 2026 transaction data, new-build prices in Łódź edged down 1.1% year on year (from 10,051 zł/m² in Q2 2025 to 9,945 zł/m², though +1.9% quarter on quarter), while resale transaction prices rose 0.6% quarter on quarter from 7,971 zł/m² to 8,020 zł/m². Meanwhile, the GUS price index by voivodeship, Q1 2026 recorded a 0.7% quarterly dip across the Łódzkie voivodeship at a time when Poland as a whole rose 2.3% quarter on quarter, and the national GUS house price index, Q2 2026 showed nationwide residential prices up 6.3% year on year (+6.5% on the primary market, +6.1% on the secondary market).

Why has Łódź stalled while the national average kept climbing? The answer lies on the supply side. According to the city of Łódź's 2025 developer-market report, developers sold roughly 3,500 new flats in the twelve months to mid-2025, down 11% on the previous year, while the pool of unsold new apartments grew by more than 20% to around 6,300 units across roughly 125 active projects. Widzew alone accounted for 23 projects and 2,730 flats. With that much choice on the market, sellers simply cannot push prices upwards.

How does Łódź compare with Warsaw, Kraków and the other big cities?

When international buyers compare Polish cities, the price gap between Łódź and the rest of the big seven is the single most striking feature on the spreadsheet. On NBP's Q2 2026 new-build transaction numbers, Łódź sits about 41% below Warsaw and 31% below the seven-city average of 14,444 zł/m².

City	New-build transaction price Q2 2026 (zł/m²)	Resale transaction price Q2 2026 (zł/m²)	Difference vs Warsaw (new build)
Warsaw	16,783	—	—
Kraków	15,923	—	−5.1%
Gdańsk	14,491	—	−13.7%
Wrocław	14,312	—	−14.7%
Gdynia	12,887	—	−23.2%
Poznań	12,766	—	−23.9%
Łódź	9,945	8,020	−40.7%
Seven-city average	14,444	—	−13.9%

Source: Narodowy Bank Polski (BaRN), preliminary data for Q2 2026 via PAP Biznes / Bankier.pl and oHipotece.

For a detailed look at how the capital's numbers break down by district, see our Warsaw property market guide. Readers weighing Łódź against the wider national picture can also consult the Poland property market guide and track cross-border movements in Property market trends across CASAFARI's markets.

What rental yield can an investor expect in Łódź?

While sale prices have flattened, asking rents in Łódź have continued to edge upwards. In CASAFARI Area Insights, the average asking rent for apartments reached €12.5/m² a month in Q3 2026, up 3.3% from €12.1/m² in Q3 2025 and up 9.6% from €11.4/m² in Q2 2025 (following a quarterly path of €11.4 → €12.1 → €11.8 → €11.9 → €12.1 → €12.5/m²).

Combining the Q3 2026 average asking rent (€12.5/m²/month) with the average asking sale price (€1,968.4/m²) produces an indicative gross rental yield of 7.6% (12 × 12.5 ÷ 1,968.4). Over the six quarters from Q2 2025 to Q3 2026, that indicative gross ratio has moved between 7.2% and 7.7% (7.7% in Q2 and Q3 2025, 7.2% in Q4 2025, 7.3% in Q1 2026, 7.4% in Q2 2026 and 7.6% in Q3 2026). It is important to read this figure for what it is: an indicative gross benchmark computed across city-wide asking pools, before purchase costs, renovation, building service charges (czynsz administracyjny), vacancy and tax.

Three distinct tenant groups underpin the rental market in Łódź:

1. Students: according to GUS higher education statistics 2024/25, universities in the Łódzkie voivodeship enrolled 72,077 students in the 2024/25 academic year — around 70,000 of them in Łódź itself, led by the University of Łódź (Uniwersytet Łódzki), Łódź University of Technology (Politechnika Łódzka) and the Medical University.
2. Shared-services and logistics staff: young professionals working in BPO/IT centres along Piotrkowska and Nowe Centrum Łodzi or in the central Polish warehouse corridor.
3. Foreign residents and workers: local employers draw heavily on international staff, particularly from Ukraine, creating steady demand for functional studios and two-room flats.

On the regulatory side, Łódź currently has no municipal licensing regime for short-term rentals, though national rules to implement the EU short-term rental regulation are in preparation in Warsaw. Because building condition and street-level demand vary sharply from one block to the next, yield-focused buyers use CASAFARI tools for property investors and run Comparables and market studies for a specific Łódź flat to check achievable rents on that exact street before making an offer.

Can a foreigner buy property in Łódź, and what does it cost in taxes?

Poland's rules on foreign buyers are straightforward for apartments, and often surprise investors from outside the European Union by how permissive they are for single units:

• EEA and Swiss citizens: citizens and companies of the European Economic Area and Switzerland can buy any apartment, house or plot of land in Poland without a permit.
• Non-EEA citizens: buyers from outside the EEA (for example from the UK, the US or Ukraine) require a permit from the Ministry of the Interior and Administration (MSWiA) to buy a house or land, including a share in a plot. However, under art. 8 of the Act on the acquisition of real estate by foreigners of 24 March 1920 (art. 8 ust. 1 pkt 1), a self-contained residential apartment (samodzielny lokal mieszkalny) can be bought without a permit. Because Łódź is in central Poland and nowhere near the legally restricted border zone, this exemption applies across the city. The notary verifies eligibility at signing, and buyers whose purchase includes a separate fractional share in an underground garage or access road should have the notary check whether that ancillary share requires clearance.

Transaction taxes depend on whether you buy on the resale market or directly from a developer, as set out in the PCC transfer tax rules explained under the Civil Law Transactions Tax Act:

• Resale purchases (PCC): subject to a 2% transfer tax (podatek od czynności cywilnoprawnych, PCC) on the market value of the apartment, collected directly by the notary at the deed. Since 31 August 2023, a natural person buying their very first home (who has never owned residential property anywhere, nor held a share in one other than up to 50% acquired by inheritance) is exempt from the 2% PCC — an exemption that applies to eligible foreign individuals as well.
• Developer purchases (VAT): new-build apartments carry VAT (8% for apartments up to 150 m², already included in the developer's gross price) instead of the 2% PCC.
• Bulk-purchase surcharge: since 2024, a 6% PCC rate applies when a buyer purchases a sixth or subsequent apartment within the same development or on a single land plot, even on the primary market.
• Other transaction costs: buyers should budget for notary fees (capped by statutory tariff), land and mortgage register (księga wieczysta) court fees, sworn translation if the buyer does not speak Polish, and an agency commission commonly between 2% and 3% plus VAT. Non-residents should also note that Polish banks lend predominantly in złoty to borrowers with documented złoty income in Poland, so most cross-border buyers purchase in cash or finance in their home country.

What are the risks of buying in Łódź?

Every high-yield market pays its yield as compensation for specific structural risks, and an honest assessment of Łódź must weigh five factors:

• Demography: according to GUS Local Data Bank population figures (variable 72305), Łódź had 639,890 registered residents at 31 December 2025, down by 5,803 people in 2025 alone (with a natural change of −5,146) and down 8.7% over the decade since 2015. This long-term shrinkage is the primary brake on long-run capital appreciation, even if unregistered students and foreign workers keep actual occupancy higher than the official register suggests.
• Developer oversupply: with around 6,300 unsold new-build apartments on the market in mid-2025 (+20% year on year) and roughly 125 projects under construction, a buyer of a standard new-build flat faces stiff competition when trying to resell or let in buildings where dozens of identical studios hit the portal on the same day.
• Flat capital values: NBP's −1.1% year-on-year reading for new-build transaction prices in Q2 2026 and the three-quarter plateau in CASAFARI asking prices confirm that Łódź is an income market, not a Warsaw-style capital-growth play.
• Pre-war tenement stock (kamienice): in Śródmieście, two flats on the same street can trade at wildly different prices per square metre. Pre-1939 tenements may carry unrenovated roofs or risers, mixed municipal and private ownership, or pending connections to the district heating network; thorough technical and legal due diligence on the homeowners' association (wspólnota mieszkaniowa) is essential.
• Currency exposure: for an investor accounting in euro, both rents and eventual resale proceeds in Poland are denominated in złoty, meaning EUR/PLN fluctuations directly affect euro returns.

How to check Łódź prices yourself with CASAFARI

Rather than relying on portal averages that count the same apartment five times across five agencies, you can inspect the deduplicated Łódź market directly in CASAFARI.

In CASAFARI Area Insights, the source of the asking-price and rent series, selecting Łódź (location id 6284892 via Location Lookup) or drilling down into Śródmieście, Widzew, Bałuty, Górna or Polesie shows the current asking price per square metre, asking rents and active stock distributions, updated weekly. When you have a specific apartment in mind, Comparables and market studies for a specific Łódź flat let you pull active and delisted comparables around the exact address, adjust for floor, condition and building era, and generate a clean valuation report. And if you are actively hunting for stock, you can use Property Sourcing to follow new Łódź listings across Polish portals in a single view.

For analysts, funds and proptech teams building their own models, every metric in this guide is available programmatically. You can reproduce the Łódź series through the Area Insights API documentation, pull property-level valuations via the Comparables and valuation API documentation, or query the market conversationally through Casafari MCP. API and MCP calls are metered in tokens (distinct from OAuth access tokens used for authentication), and you can create a CASAFARI account and API key directly on the self-serve platform.