Poland's current property over-supply will need between 18 months and two years to clear, says a leading estate agent.

'We need about 18 months to two years before the market has absorbed the over-supply of housing,' Aleksander Skirmuntt, director for new investments at Emmerson Real Estate told the Warsaw Voice.

"Today there are some 20,000 apartments for sale in Warsaw alone. Developers are offering 13,000 of these, including 1,000 that are ready to move into. The other 7,000 apartments were previous speculative purchases that are now up for sale. In addition, new projects are coming onto the market all the time, " he added.

Those developers who had planned big projects of several hundred apartments for this year, have postponed their plans, he said. They had been forced to do so by low housing demand and banks' reluctance to finance such large projects. However, small housing estates, with up to 100 units, are continuing to be built in those parts of the capital that have good transport links.

Robin Bowman