The aim of this article is to examine the reasons behind the growing popularity ofgated communities in Poland by applying cultural, institutional and economic explanationsin the Polish context. The empirical material consists of interviews, newspaperarticles, legal acts concerning housing, official documents and a questionnaire. Thedivide between the public and private spheres is central to the explanatory model, andit is argued that it is this that has played a central role in the emergence and popularityof gated forms of housing in Poland. The introduction of a market economy and subsequentsocio-economic inequalities has resulted in specific forms of individual strategiesregarding housing preferences. It is suggested here that this specific form ofindividualism, connected with institutional shortcomings, cultural legacies and thepresent housing market, is reflected in the enclosed and private living spaces of today’s Poles.