Measuring Dwelling Price Changes in Poland with the Application of the Hedonic Methods

The main aim of the paper was to identify price changes in the secondary housing market in the years 2008-2012 in the biggest cities in Poland. This aim determines the scope of the subject, which includes price changes in the secondary housing market, relating both to full and limited ownership rights to private accommodation. This research refers only to dwellings located in multi-family buildings. Such choice was determined by two factors. Firstly, the majority of dwellings are located in multi-family residentials (dwelling blocks – up to 90% in big Polish cities). Secondly, houses are characterized by great differentiation regarding both quantitative and qualitative features, which requires the database to include the appropriate information about each property in order to construct house price indexes. On the other hand, the Polish secondary housing market is greater than the primary market (approximately up to three times) taking into consideration the number of transactions.The paper is divided into four parts. In the first part the idea and meaning of house price indexes are analyzed. Then, the transaction and asking prices are described. In the following part, the hedonic methods are presented. The fourth part of the paper contains the analysis of dwelling price changes in the five biggest cities in Poland (Cracow, Lodz, Poznan, Warsaw, Wroclaw) in the years 2008-2012.