Two Resi4Rent developments, Gdańsk Zielony Trójkąt and Wrocław Bardzka, have achieved BREEAM International New Construction certification at the Very Good level. Together, the two projects comprise 1,356 rental apartments. This is another example of the growing importance of environmental standards in the institutional rental market, where energy efficiency and operating costs are becoming increasingly important factors in assessing the quality of residential developments.
According to the Polish Green Building Council (PLGBC) report Sustainable Certified Buildings 2026, at the end of March this year, Poland had 2,830 environmentally certified buildings, with a combined floor area of 57.6 million sqm. This represents a 15% increase year-on-year. However, environmental certification remains significantly more widespread in the commercial real estate market than in the residential sector. Around 99% of modern office space in Poland is environmentally certified, while warehouse properties account for the largest share in terms of total certified floor area. In the residential sector, just 423 buildings, with a combined area of 1.75 million sqm, hold such certification, representing slightly more than 3% of the country’s total certified floor area. A significant proportion of these properties have been developed specifically for the institutional rental market.
“We build with a perspective of several decades of use in mind, which is why decisions made at the design stage continue to matter long after a development has been completed. They influence energy consumption, building maintenance costs and residents’ comfort, as well as the property’s long-term value. This approach is reflected in our ESG strategy and encompasses the entire investment process, from site selection to day-to-day management. The certification of these two additional developments provides independent confirmation of the standards we work to. The institutional rental market in Poland has moved beyond explaining what it is. Today, the conversation is about the quality of what we deliver,” says Sławomir Imianowski, CEO of Resi4Rent.
The BREEAM certification process assesses ten categories, including energy and water consumption, materials, waste management, transport and land use. Both the Gdańsk and Wrocław developments achieved scores of 81% in the energy category and 60% in the transport category. The consistency of these results across two different cities demonstrates Resi4Rent’s uniform approach to sustainable design, regardless of location.
“In the institutional rental sector, environmental decisions are also business decisions, delivering tangible benefits: they reduce the cost of using apartments and contribute to the long-term value of properties. The energy performance results achieved by Resi4Rent’s developments in Gdańsk and Wrocław demonstrate the importance of addressing these issues at the design stage. Certification provides an important independent benchmark. The next step for the sector should be to consistently measure and report the actual performance of buildings in operation, including energy consumption, operating costs and residents’ comfort,” says Irena Pichola, Founder and CEO of Artha Consulting Network.
