In February of this year, a huge wave of refugees flowed into Poland as a result of the war. More than 3 million people from Ukraine arrived in Poland, but now the trend is reversing as thousands of Ukrainians are seen queuing in an 11 kilometer-long cavalcade on the Polish-Ukrainian border to re-enter the war-torn nation — estimates suggest it will take over five days to clear the backlog.
This phenomenon has little to do with the war receding or a return home, it is due to the fact that, as a result of martial law being imposed in Ukraine, the state has abolished customs charges and VAT on second-hand cars, and Ukrainians are rushing to cash in before the regulations change.
Demand for second-hand cars in Poland is high and they are often sold within minutes of arriving on the market. Soon, demand for second-hand cars in Poland will exceed supply, but a bottleneck is developing on the Polish-Ukrainian border as thousands of cars wait to get across. This has reportedly not dissuaded Ukrainians who are are buying second-hand cars by the caseload.
The likely market effect of this phenomenon will be an increase in Polish demand for second-hand cars from Germany and, as a result of increased demand, a rise in prices on the second-hand car market, especially given the fact that there are increasing problems with the delivery of new cars in a timely fashion.
