This is a story at the intersection of the world of architecture, business and bigdata. On March 18 of this year, a portal appeared online revealing information scantily concealed by developers, thanks to which consumers will finally learn how much apartments really cost on the primary market. What is Developeruch and can it help heal the real estate market?
Imagine going to the store and not knowing what amount you will come to pay for the products in your shopping cart. Looking at televisions in a store you only find out the price at the checkout, and to find out how much a shirt that caught your eye costs, you have to send an email to the right address. It sounds ridiculous and not necessarily legal. However, there is a market where such a situation is considered the norm. It is, of course, the real estate market, and more specifically, the primary market. Browsing the Internet, we are easily able to find information on the average price per square meter in various cities, but when it comes to the specific amounts that need to be paid for real estate, the situation becomes much more complicated. A large number of developers hide this information under the magic "Ask for price" button. However, such a procedure is becoming a thing of the past, all thanks to a new tool that has been made available on the Internet.
Developers hide data of apartments being sold
Photo: Brandon Griggs © Unsplash Free
developer reveals how much apartments cost in your area
In recent days, a service called Deweloperuch, which is intended to reverse the dynamics of consumer-developer access to information, has been gaining popularity. Deweloperuch is a database of investors, investments and prices of specific properties, where all information is public and available free of charge. According to the site's content, more investments and their prices are added by consumers themselves, and everything is presented in the form of an easy-to-read map, from which we will learn how much individual units cost and the average prices per square meter in the area. At the moment, the site offers information on 2,650 investments carried out by 1,233 developers in 521 Polish cities.
In February, data with prices of 100,000 apartments was leaked
Photo by Mika Baumeister © Unsplash Free
hackers vs. developers
At this point it is impossible to say with certainty where the basic base, which consists of 2,650 investments, was obtained from. One clue may be the situation that occurred at the end of February this year, when a user named "Okna Bej" posted on social networking site X a database containing the prices of one hundred thousand apartments, obtained from the website rynekpierwotny.pl and several other Polish portals. As for the reliability of this data, there is no certainty, but, as he revealed in an interview with innpoland.pl, the information was collected in a legal manner, directly from the websites.
A quick comparison of the data available on Deweloperuch's website with those in the databases provided by user "Okna Bej" allows one to conclude that this is what at least some of the available information is based on. Implicitly, however, Developeruch is to develop, constantly expanding the resource of listings with data provided from the bottom up:
With us, you won't find an REQUEST FOR PRICE, because users enter the data themselves.
- reads the site.
consumer, consumer - take matters into your own hands!
Indeed, in addition to a map with offers, Deweloperuch allows you to view the list of investments posted in the database, developers and add the offer to the collection yourself. At the moment there is no option to add a new investment or developer. When submitting a housing offer, the service requires users to select one of the investments already added, describe the date on which the information was obtained and the source of the information (choices include website, phone, email and conversation). To validate their information, users entering listings can add photos or screen shots of the emails or websites from which they derived their knowledge.
prudent, always insured
Once an offer is added, a message is displayed proclaiming that the entered offer will be verified by the Developer's staff. What will this verification consist of? It is not known, as the site does not provide such information, nor does it provide contact details for the service operator. If the data is to be taken seriously, it would be worthwhile for the people developing Developerucha to share this knowledge, because like any Internet tool, the system may prove vulnerable to the actions of those who wish to disrupt the reliability of the information contained in the maps.
how many apartments are on the real estate market?
This is not WKP Investments' first online tool focused on real estate market observation. Just a few years ago there was a website called olxData, collecting data automatically from two real estate websites - olx and otoDom. Looking through the charts, we will find out, among other things, how many apartments, houses and plots are currently available on the market, how the dynamics of the real estate market are changing, and compare the situation of the availability of apartments in different cities. The site has gained a lot of popularity, and the data taken from it in the past were cited by large industry websites, including Bankier, strefainwestorow.pl or wgospodarce.pl.
crypto WKP Investments
Wondering about the reliability of the data presented by the services discussed above, one can finally ask: what is WKP Investments. Searches do not bring a clear answer, but plenty of leads lead to the community of wykop.pl, who comment vividly on the success of Deweloperuch and mention the media in which the data collected by olxData was found. It seems that also the coincidence of the name of WKP Investments with the address of the portal on which the community operates is not coincidental.
Katarzyna Pe³czyñska-Na³êcz announced a law, according to which disclosure of housing prices will be mandatory
photo: Lubomir Nikolov
government (finally) reacts to the problem
Soon the Developeruch portal may become unnecessary, as disclosure of housing price data will become mandatory. That's according to a bill announced by Funds Minister Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, which was submitted to the parliament by the 2050 party on February 20. Under the document, developers would have to maintain websites with information on the prices and square meters of apartments offered, as well as any additional costs incurred during the purchase. Violations of these rules are to be prosecuted by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection ex officio. And here's a surprise.
