Income distribution, housing and poverty in Poland: the impact of housing affordability problems on poverty

Since the fundaments for the housing market were established after 1989, a large-scale privatisation raised and the dwellings were transferred to private inhabitants for a fraction of its value, increasing homeownership in the tenure structure. The market is determined by the groups of: homeowners – 69,04%, tenants – 4,16%, households with housing provided free – 26,78%Therefore, the paper examines the relationship of income distribution, housing and poverty with an approach to tenure structure, as well as probability of falling into poverty for those households which face housing affordability problems. Also, the impact of housing and the tenure structure on poverty reduction is evaluated. The research is based on housing affordability definitions and estimated housing poverty indicators, and the data source comes from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) provided by Eurostat, which provides a harmonized information on poverty, inequality, standard of living and other social issues, at both a regional and a national level. The result determines that, though the homeownership rate is high, homeownership and mortgages are more accessible to high-income households (4th quintile) hampering access to housing market to low-income households (1st quintile) and households in poverty, whereas the poverty is higher among the tenants than among the outright owners.