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No real difference yet. We still spend at least 50% less than in France. The Euro changed a little to our advantage.

Hey everybody!

I am currently living in the capital so I will talk about my expenses here in Warsaw. May you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me

1. What is the price of a property rental in Poland? What about buying a property?
-> I used to have quite nice room in shared apartment for 1000 PLN (during pandemic even for 800). Recently I have decided to live alone and price jumped slightly above 2000 PLN for a studio flat, not so far from the city centre. I was not really interested in buying a flat, but I can say that my newly built 31m2 flat costs now around 600k PLN.

2. How much does petrol cost or how much does it cost to use the various public transport services?
-> Petrol can cost something around 4.5 PLN and public transportation - bus/tram/train/metro: 3.4 or 4.4 PLN for 20 or 75 min. Of course student and senior discounts apply and you can buy one month/3months ticket, which will cost even less.

3. How much do you spend on average on your weekly groceries in Poland? Have you noticed a change in the price of staple foodstuff?
-> Weekly, I would say it is around 400 PLN, however some people can save more money by not buying fish, exotic fruits or some other kind of healthy products. When I was comparing prices from 2019, I found out I was spending maybe 200-300 PLN less on food, however at that time we were working from the office and had many takeaways or snacks. Prices of staple foodstuff got slightly higher in my opinion.

4. What is the price of your health insurance? How much does seeing a general practitioner or specialist cost?
-> Here I pay 500 PLN every month from my salary to their healthcare system, but in fact its very hard to get a proper treatment from public hospitals. Therefore most of the companies offer private care packages, which can cost from 20 PLN to couple of hundreds. If you simply go to some private clinic, you will end up paying around 150-200 PLN for a visit/examination.

5. How much are your children's school fees? What about the cost of childcare?
-> Hah, this question does not apply to me, but I know if you are not from Warsaw, you probably need to sign up for kindergarten before your child is born Childcare can be included in some of parents healthcare packages as far as I know.

6. How much do you spend on your regular bills (water, electricity, mobile phone package, internet subscription etc.) on a monthly basis?
-> Water is usually included in rent but you need to pay extra in case you cross certain limit. Electricity can be 50-100 PLN, gas - 20 PLN, Internet around 60 PLN, but you can probably find it even cheaper just without notice period. Mobile phone package - 30 PLN (never had such prices back in Slovakia )

7. What budget do you set aside for your leisure activities in Poland? What is the price of a cinema or concert ticket? How much does a subscription to a gym cost?
-> I will start with the gym, because its one of my favorite places: they usually ask for 1-2 years membership, however you can find some for 50+ PLN a month. Cinema - 20 PLN, but I always try to get discounted tickets from various portals. When it comes to traveling, I do not go to 5* hotels, but I try to enjoy the food and attractions. Therefore I can spend 500+PLN on a small trip, but not every month of course

A flat of two bedrooms in Krakow is around 1500PLN, currently. Food stuff seems to be fair.

> What is the price of a property rental in Poland? What about buying a property?

As I live in Upper Silesia I’ll talk about this region. In the main city of the Silesia - Katowice, where my company offers long-term rentals, prices for the studio flat are around 1700 PLN. The one bedroom apartment cost about 2200-2500 PLN for a fully furnished apartment, including utilities and the Internet. A shared apartment cost about 1000 PLN for a room.

Prices for a new apartment in the Metropolly (not only Katowice, but the nearby cities) starts at 5000 PLN per square meter. In Katowice prices start at 6300 PLN per square meter, but in the city center and prestigious areas the prices go up to even 10 000 PLN per square meter.

If you would like to buy a flat from a secondary market, the prices are only a little bit lower, about 6000 PLN per square meter, for an apartment in the more centralised parts of the city.

The further from the city center and in the less popular areas, the prices lower about 4000 PLN per square meter.

> How much does petrol cost or how much does it cost to use the various public transport services?

At the moment petrol’s price is very high, about 5 PLN per liter (both Diesel and Unleaded 95).

The single fare tickets cost 3.40 PLN, 4.00 PLN and 5.00 PLN (depending on the length of travel). Children up to 16 years old rides for free, students (and in some cases) have a 50% discount.

But if you commute daily, you can buy Metroticket -  one ticket for all the public transport - buses, trams and shared trains. It costs 229 PLN per month (as previously mentioned students have 50% discount).

> How much do you spend on average on your weekly groceries in Poland? Have you noticed a change in the price of staple foodstuff?

In the previous year prices increased rapidly. The ASM Sales Force Agency reports that the average cost of 40 basic products (inter alia meat, dairy, drinks, domestic detergents, alcohol, etc.) cost about 220 PLN. 

> What is the price of your health insurance? How much does seeing a general practitioner or specialist cost?

Most Polish people have public insurance, that we all pay in taxes, taken from our salaries. The private insurance cost between 30 and 250 PLN. Some companies offer extra private insurance as the benefit.

> How much do you spend on your regular bills (water, electricity, mobile phone package, internet subscription etc.) on a monthly basis?

Based on data that we have from our tenants, in a 30 sqm apartment, with one person living in it, the utility bills would cost about 300 PLN for electricity, central heating, water, waste disposal, and WiFi.

> What budget do you set aside for your leisure activities in Poland? What is the price of a cinema or concert ticket? How much does a subscription to a gym cost?

A dish in a nice restaurant costs about 25-30 PLN, a drink to a dinner is about 8 PLN (for alcohol free drink) or 25 (for alcoholic one).

A ticket for the cinema costs about 20 PLN, but once a week in most cinemas is a discount day, when tickets are much cheaper. The theater tickets cost about 80 PLN.

There are many gym chains in Katowice and in the whole Upper Silesia. The monthly subscription, with an unlimited entrance, sometimes even 24/7 cost about 80 PLN.

Daily life expenses are about twice lower than in Western Europe, including cinema tickets. Even less for most food products and Polish restaurants. About the same prices for cars and petrol. Just a bit less.
Imported domestic appliances are nearly the same price as elsewhere. This also applies to clothes.
Cigarettes and local alkohols are still scandalously cheap.
Public transport is a bit expensive for the local people. But there exist all kinds of rebates. and combinations. Even tickets for 20 mn, one hour etc.. Beware of controllers! Busses go rather quickly in Warsaw as traffic is generally fluid.
Property: You won't often find a nice flat in  Warsaw center for more than 2.500 Euros per sqm. That's 5 times cheaper than in Paris. Charges and taxes are reasonable.