I walk on my toes, I don't use the toilet, I am from Poland. I am looking for a room to rent.

Free zones from the eastern accent, cats, gig economy contracts, and old age – casting for the perfect tenant can officially begin. The academic year is starting, so it will be demanding and crowded, with a styrofoam partition and one window, because more than 100,000 students are heading to large cities than last year – a double cohort is just entering.

Young people will agree to any conditions, and landlords will be choosing from the most promising candidates. Today, solvency alone is no longer enough; increasingly, preference is given to those of “Polish Polish” origin.

Darwinian natural selection in the rental market has been operating for years, and unfortunately, there is no sign of change, because the more scarce the housing becomes in Poland, the more the market begins to resemble an exhibition of purebred dogs.

Poles with a Polish pedigree are in demand

– I wouldn’t manage now – says 29-year-old Valeria. Eight years ago, she fled Bosnia and Herzegovina, plunged into a financial and political crisis, and came to Kraków to study international relations. She has encountered owner reluctance a few times – they were bothered by her name and surname.

– I had unpleasant situations where I called owners to arrange a viewing, but when we met in person to sign the contract, they suddenly didn’t want to. Because they couldn’t hear the accent on the phone, but once they saw my background, they changed their minds. Now I rent one room with friends. I would like to rent alone, but at the moment it’s financially impossible. I have to squeeze into a room. I came in 2018 on a scholarship that was 1200 zł, and I easily paid for the dormitory, which then cost 250 zł. I could survive a month with a little help from my parents.

On OLX ads, you can see more and more offers stating that Polish citizenship and speaking Polish are preferred. Citizens of Ukraine accept this situation, try their luck further, and eventually succeed – Artem and Roksolana tell me. They have heard several times on the phone, “Sorry, we don’t rent to Ukrainians” – this is now almost standard.

A standard condition is also the non-acceptance of pets. Grzegorz has been living in Kraków for almost nine years. Recently, he changed rooms with two dogs and was asked: “Do the dogs bark loudly?”, “Are they walked?”. But also more personal questions: “Do I have a work contract?”, “Am I expecting a child with my partner?”.

– In Kraków, this rental market just fuels itself. Landlords know they can charge more, so they do. The plan is to move out of here – adds Grzegorz.

Cage breeding for a fortune

Currently, in Kraków, there are 18,279 active rental listings, with a median rent of about 2800 zł per month. In comparison, Warsaw has 30,000 listings, with a median of around 3500 zł. These cities are most often chosen by young high school graduates for studies – and year by year, prices are rising.

To advance professionally and socially, students accept any living conditions, although not everyone will have that opportunity. This is evident in Kraków – here, the number of students is decreasing year by year: from nearly 210,000 between 2009–2012 to about 127,000 at the end of 2022. Living costs are rising in large centers, so at exorbitant rent rates, some fight for dorms and manage to get in (though increasingly difficult), while others will eat styrofoam, wash it down with two-day-old beer bought during “happy hour,” be late for classes after work – barely managing both – and as a result, learn little. Others, after a cold financial calculation, will stay in their hometowns, where the job market is limited, and demographics are shrinking like a Turkish sweater after washing, making it harder to build social or cultural capital. Such places include Tarnów or Gorzów Wielkopolski, which have their public universities.

19-year-old Paweł came from near Brzesko to study automation and robotics at AGH. He says he took whatever was cheap, as long as it was affordable, but he heard that people didn’t get into dorms even 130 kilometers from Kraków.

– I pay 900 zł for rent and 400 zł for utilities. It’s a tiny room, very hard to find anything cheaper.

But how come: no place to live? Walking through the streets of Polish cities, I see new dormitories being built all the time, like “Student Spaces” in Warsaw’s Mokotów. Unfortunately, this is just an illusion of availability. Private rentals are opened with the idea of catering to children of well-off parents.

The unmet demand for student accommodation in Poland reaches up to 400,000 beds, with about 60,000 missing in Warsaw alone. Building modern dorms for the wealthiest children doesn’t solve the problem; it exacerbates social inequalities and proves that the education system in Poland is only seemingly egalitarian. Students from Poznań know this well, who have not regained Jowita because UAM has no funds for renovation. The same applies to UJ – renovation of Kamionka? Too expensive.

Students are left to a unequal fight with landlords, and here it’s like in TV shows and reality competitions – you have to outdo the competition, meet specific conditions, sometimes aesthetic ones, make a good first impression. It’s easy to stumble upon uncomfortable, tricky, stressful questions. If you answer badly – you’re out.

Fads and the free market rule

Casting for tenants was not invented in Poland. In Ireland, flatmate interviews have been routine for several years and include a questionnaire with a dozen questions. On Facebook, there is a group called The Ideal Flatmate Dublin, with nearly 100,000 members.

In the Netherlands, casting for a tenant is almost a systemic solution resulting from a serious shortage of student housing, but it differs somewhat from Polish standards. It’s called hospiteren. The balance of power here is not based on financial capital but on “chemistry.” When a room in an apartment becomes available, the remaining tenants do not contact an agency but look for candidates online themselves. They invite them to an introductory evening, check their lifestyle and passions, and see what they study. Based on this, they choose the winner – the new roommate.

Interestingly, this year the European Parliament took an interest in the situation of the lack of student housing and asked how to reconcile residents’ right to choose a roommate with non-discrimination and objective selection principles.

In France, the rental casting is more informal and resembles more a university recruitment process. “Le Monde” wrote about it two years ago as “parcoursup” – a university admission system, because with limited supply, students have to compete for a small number of apartments.

34-year-old Tomek, a Kraków resident for over 10 years, says it was hard to beat someone with a full-time job when he only had freelance work, but he wasn’t surprised by exclusion, as he encountered a similar scheme in Ireland. Today, he rents an apartment with his partner in Krowodrza, a student district in the city center.

– We have a dog, and it was already hard to find with one animal.
– But we couldn’t admit to having two cats – laughs Gabriela. – If you have more animals, it’s practically impossible, which is hard to understand, because we work and a clause in the contract stating we could cover potential damages would be a good solution, but no one agrees to it. And if we sift through ads, maybe one percent agree to a dog.
– It’s best if it’s a small dog and doesn’t bark – adds Gabriela. – We were asked to send a photo of the dog. But I remember in Ireland, when I lived there for two years, that was the norm. Thirty or forty people came to one apartment for a casting, with references in hand, from employers or previous tenants.

Is this normal?

For those who spent a fortune on buying an apartment, screening unsuitable tenants seems quite reasonable in times of strange stories about property destruction. In Będzin, three years ago, a nationwide case involved a family of five who destroyed an apartment during a year of rent so badly that it went to court. Concerns about unpaid rent and tenants leaving the premises are also common.

– People take risks, but it should be regulated. Not everything needs to be asked – says 81-year-old Feliks, a Kraków owner, renting a 45 m² studio to a Ukrainian couple for 1500 zł at Królewska.

– People are afraid for their property, but if they don’t rent to Ukrainians, we won’t have pensions. They are very important.

A large part of landlords treat their apartments as a speculative-financial tool. Patowynajem (pseudo-rent) is a quick way for them to earn passive income, so they divide large apartments into several tiny, micro-sized rooms with cheap drywall partitions.

Wheel of fortune

Tenant law in Poland theoretically protects tenants, but in practice, it doesn’t always work. Eviction to the street is illegal but still occurs, although laws provide additional protection for, among others, mothers with children and pensioners and retirees, but it varies. Landlords know this and are reluctant to take risks – what if the tenant stops paying and it’s hard to get rid of them? As a result, these social groups have been heavily discriminated against on the rental market for years. But not only them.

According to the report Hidden Barriers – Who is Denied Access to the Rental Market in Poland? from 2025, the greatest reluctance concerns non-EU foreigners – 55 percent of negative responses. Freelancers and people on civil law contracts are also on the blacklist, even though their incomes can be comparable or often higher than “full-time” workers, and pet owners – 35 percent rejection.

What do landlords base their decisions on? Most primarily on income level and stability – 54 percent, personal impression – 46 percent, and whether someone is single, in a relationship, or has a family. A survey of 1500 people also shows that students are least welcome on the rental market. Alongside pensioners and retirees, “full families,” and freelancers, they form the group with the lowest preference rate in the landlord’s view.

In times of ambiguous requirements and a big lottery machine, young people increasingly announce themselves on closed online groups, posting attractive photos, leveraging physical capital, and trying to make a good first impression. They somewhat initiate such casting themselves because they know it will work. People tend to attribute specific personality traits based on a photo.

The “double academic year” is approaching rapidly, so all tricks are allowed, but the best chance is when you add an ad like this:

“Hi, my name is Mateusz. I’m looking to rent a single room in the city center. About me: I work steadily full-time (mostly outside the home). I only come back to the apartment at night, I’m not there during the day. I am a calm, clean, punctual person with no vices (I don’t smoke), I don’t drink, I don’t cook in the apartment, I walk on my toes. I have no pets. Basically, I just want to pay for the apartment, sometimes use the toilet (but more often outside). If you have a spare room or know someone looking for a quiet tenant, write to me!”

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Mateusz Macierakowski – reporter, sociologist. Creator of the channel Bez żartów, graduate of the Polish School of Reportage. Winner of two SGL Local Press awards 2026.

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