Housing

Steps

1. Look for a home on the listing portals or through an agency: expect about 2 to 3% of the price as commission for a purchase (EURES). Utilities (media: water, electricity, heating) are generally not included in the rent.
2. Choose your type of lease. Three forms exist:
   • the ordinary lease (umowa najmu), in writing, without a notary;
   • the najem okazjonalny ("occasional" rental), for a fixed term of 10 years at most, with a landlord who is an individual not renting on a professional basis, and a notarised declaration by the tenant agreeing to leave at the end of the lease;
   • the najem instytucjonalny (rental by a professional), for a fixed term, also with a notarised declaration.
3. Pay the deposit (kaucja): generally one month's rent; at most twelve times the rent for an ordinary lease, six times for a najem okazjonalny. It must be returned to you within the month following your vacating the home, after deduction of what you owe the landlord (art. 6 ust. 4 and art. 19a ust. 5 of the Act).
4. During the lease: in an ordinary lease, the landlord cannot increase the rent more than once every six months, by three months' written notice (art. 8a and 9 ust. 1b of the Act). You, in a lease of indefinite duration, can leave at any time by respecting the notice period provided. In an ordinary lease, the landlord can only terminate on the grounds provided by law (for example three unpaid rent instalments, subletting without written agreement) and must give written notice, stating the reason, at least one month in advance for the end of a calendar month (EURES).
5. To buy: check the land register (księga wieczysta, land and mortgage register), usually sign a preliminary contract, then the sale deed at the notary. The notary collects the PCC tax on the day of the deed when it is due.
6. After the purchase, declare the property to your municipality for property tax (see factsheet PL-IMPOTS-TOUS-001).

Documents

• Identity document (identity card or passport) for the lease and at the notary.
• For a najem okazjonalny: your notarised declaration of submission to eviction and the address of a home where you could go at the end of the lease, with the declaration of the owner of that home agreeing to take you in (art. 19a of the Act on the protection of tenants' rights: notarial deed of submission to enforcement and of undertaking to vacate the home, and indication of another home where you can live; the landlord must declare the contract to the tax office within 14 days, otherwise the special regime does not apply; if you lose this replacement home, you must indicate another within 21 days).
• For a purchase: land register number, preliminary contract, financing (loan offer).

Costs and timelines

• Average rent in Warsaw: PLN 2,286 per month in the 1st quarter of 2025, up 2.7% over one year (EURES). Home prices: +9.5% for new-build and +8.5% for resale between early 2024 and early 2025.
• Deposit: 12 months' rent at most (ordinary lease), 6 months at most (najem okazjonalny).
• Purchase tax (podatek od czynności cywilnoprawnych, PCC): 2% of the price of a resale home. Exemption since 31 August 2023 if you have never owned a home or a share of a home (an inherited share of 50% or less does not count): for example PLN 10,000 saved on a property at PLN 500,000. For new-build, 6% from the sixth VAT-liable home bought by the same buyer in the buildings on the same plot (art. 7a of the Act).
• New-build sold by a developer: no PCC, VAT is included in the price (transactions subject to VAT are not subject to PCC: art. 2 pkt 4 of the PCC Act, except the sixth-home case above; check in your deed that the sale is invoiced with VAT).
• Notary fees: capped by the regulation of the Minister of Justice (Dz.U. 2024 poz. 1566): for the sale of a home or building land, half the general scale (§ 6 and § 3), which caps at PLN 100 up to PLN 3,000; PLN 100 + 3% of the excess over PLN 3,000 up to PLN 10,000; PLN 310 + 2% of the excess over PLN 10,000 up to PLN 30,000; PLN 710 + 1% of the excess over PLN 30,000 up to PLN 60,000; PLN 1,010 + 0.4% of the excess over PLN 60,000 up to PLN 1,000,000; PLN 4,770 + 0.2% of the excess over PLN 1,000,000 up to PLN 2,000,000; then PLN 6,770 + 0.25% of the excess, PLN 10,000 at most. The regulation does not mention VAT: ask the notary for a quote including VAT. Entering ownership in the land register costs PLN 200 in court fees (art. 42 ust. 1 of the Act on court costs). The notary drafting the declaration for a najem okazjonalny cannot charge more than one tenth of the monthly minimum wage (art. 19a ust. 7).
• Housing allowance (dodatek mieszkaniowy): under an income ceiling of PLN 3,272.69 per month for a single person, PLN 2,454.52 per person in a household (EURES figures, year not specified).

Common pitfalls

• Paying before seeing the home or signing. Pay nothing without a written lease.
• Signing a najem okazjonalny without understanding the notarised declaration: it allows the landlord to get you to leave more easily at the end of the lease.
• Forgetting the running costs: ask for the monthly amount of the media and of the building's service-charge advance (czynsz administracyjny).
• Buying agricultural land as if it were building land. If the agricultural area reaches 1 ha, only an individual farmer can in principle buy it, subject to exceptions provided by law (for example a purchase from a relative of the seller); otherwise the agreement of the Director General of the KOWR is needed; between 0.3 ha and less than 1 ha, anyone can buy; below 0.3 ha of agricultural land, the agricultural law does not apply, since 5 October 2023 (KOWR). In principle, every buyer of agricultural land must also run the farm concerned for at least 5 years, in person if they are an individual (KOWR, art. 2b).
• Believing the deposit can cover everything: make a written inventory of condition with photos on entry.

What changes by country of origin

• EU, EEA and Swiss citizens: no authorisation from the Ministry of the Interior to buy, whatever the location or the size of the property; the KOWR rules on agricultural land apply to everyone.
• British citizens (Scots included): since 1 January 2021, they need in principle the authorisation of the Minister of the Interior (PLN 1,570), with exceptions: purchase of a self-contained flat (samodzielny lokal mieszkalny) or of a garage linked to the home outside the border zone; permanent residence permit or EU long-term resident permit with 5 years of uninterrupted residence in Poland since it was granted (outside the border zone and outside agricultural land of more than 1 ha); or protection under the Withdrawal Agreement (notably British citizens who resided in a Member State before 1 January 2021 and still reside there).
• Other non-Europeans: same regime as British citizens.