Dynamic migrations from urban to suburban areas and related to them development of residential buildings in rural areas are both desirable by local authorities and raise many concerns, including anticipation of natural environmental values degradation. The source of those concerns is common opinion, that urban people prefer moving out toward areas with exceptional natural environmental values and, through transforming them with intensive residential building, eventually destroy them. The aim of the article was the attempt to find the answer for the following question: do urban people actually select areas with exceptional natural environmental values for their suburban residential houses? What are their motives to select the particular localization for suburban homes? Studies were carried out in the area including all communes surrounding Olsztyn, the capital of Warmia and Mazury region, where almost half of the region’s area is legally protected. Achieving the aim required considering natural environmental values, analyzing the preferences toward suburban localization for residential buildings and its actual concentration. As a result, it was eventually verified, that areas with exceptional environmental values were not simultaneously attractive for residential building, therefore properly directed suburbanization do not have to explicitly mean environmental degradation, but can even contribute to gentrification of villages located in the areas that are of less importance for agriculture or maintaining valuable ecosystems.
