PMR Report: Home improvements to moderate from 2020 levels

The consumer DIY market* in Poland grew in value by a record 9% in 2020, according to PMR calculations. Home-bound households upgrading their interiors, and a resilient housing sector that built more apartments than in previous years were key factors.

The Covid-19 pandemic provided a boost to the consumer DIY market in Poland in 2020. DIY stores remained open throughout the year, even as most other non-food retailers endured months of lockdowns; and consumers, spending more time at home than ever before, with their options for leisure and travel sharply curtailed, turned to improving their interiors and gardens in big numbers.

In a survey carried out by PMR in February/ March 2021, fully 71% of respondents said they had done home improvement projects in the preceding 12 months. A fifth conducted projects that they had not planned before the pandemic. The biggest proportion renovated their living rooms. Upgrades of kitchens and bathrooms were the most comprehensive. The most common improvements were makeovers of walls and replacements of furniture.

Despite the jump in projects in 2020 brought on by the pandemic, still more than 60% of our respondents planned to do home renovations within the next 12 months. But projects in 2021 will be more limited in scope: the average planned spend was more than PLN 6,000 (€1,345) lower than the average declared spend in 2020. This pattern of lower predicted spending was observed for all rooms.

*PMR defines the DIY market as comprising two segments:

 Consumer DIY market – the combined sales value of construction and renovation materials, interior decorations, garden products, and tools purchased by consumers or by contractors acting on their behalf, for the purposes of self-build house projects, home improvements, or garden projects.

 Institutional DIY market – the combined sales value of construction and renovation materials, interior decorations, garden products, and tools purchased by institutional customers (construction firms, developers, other businesses, central and local government agencies) or by contractors acting on their behalf, for the purposes of new-build and renovation projects.