A potential of Inclusionary Housing as an affordable housing supply instrument in Poland

Developers have become the leading housing providers in Poland; in recent years, their share in the primary housing market has increased from 34% in 2015 to 60% in 2022. Demand is high and is mainly of an investment nature. At the same time, many households, especially in large cities, cannot meet their housing needs independently and expect support from local authorities (in 2022, there were almost 143,000 households). Municipalities cannot fulfill their obligations, their resources are shrinking due to privatization and technical wear and tear, and they do not build new resources independently (in 2022, they only made 600 apartments). Cooperation with social rental housing actors also results in a small pool of apartments. The authors investigated whether an inclusionary housing solution would be accepted and implemented in Polish conditions. The IH model's implementation consists of planning policy tools due to the importance of planning for the location design and number of new housing units, the size of affordable housing supply, and the applicability of the Value Capturing mechanism (de Kam, Needham & Buitelaar 2014). The IH allows for separating affordable flats in commercial housing projects and allocating them to households meeting specific criteria. The research conducted by the authors was multidimensional and used various methods; the first stage was in 2020, and the revision of results was prepared in 2024. The authors used the desk study to identify different IH models and their effects in practice. Then, to determine the potential of using IH in Poland, the authors identified and analyzed national legal bases enabling the implementation of solutions similar to IH in practice, and they examined the degree of their use. This concerned solutions to the acts commonly called "premises for land," starter apartments, and Lex developer. The next stage of the research was qualitative, and it aimed to indicate the degree of interest in IH on the part of local authorities in Polish cities and developers. The methods used allowed the authors to make conclusions.