Guides
Guides for landlords and for people looking for a flat
Answers to the questions that come up in every transaction — written once and properly, so they can be read before the conversation rather than instead of it.
For tenants
What You Need to Rent an Apartment in Warsaw
To sign a lease agreement, all you strictly need is an ID and the ability to pay rent — the rest of the requirements exist simply because the landlord is meeting you for the first time in their life and has to make a decision within thirty minutes.
ReadFor both sides
Occasional rental in Poland — what it is and what you need
Occasional rental (najem okazjonalny) is an ordinary lease with one addition: before moving in, the tenant agrees in front of a notary to leave the flat once the lease ends. The owner is spared a years-long eviction case — and in exchange the tenant gets an owner who is no longer afraid to rent.
ReadFor both sides
Rental agreement — what to check before you sign
A tenancy agreement settles three things: how much you pay, for how long, and on what terms either side can end it. Everything else is detail around those three.
ReadFor both sides
Rental deposit in Poland — how much and when it comes back
The deposit protects the owner against arrears and damage — and it comes back after you hand the flat over, reduced only by what is genuinely owed.
ReadFor owners
Tax on rental income in Poland — the lump-sum rules
Private rental in Poland is now taxed only as a lump sum on revenue: 8.5% up to an annual threshold and 12.5% above it, with no deduction of costs.
ReadFor buyers
Buying a flat in Warsaw: the whole road from budget to keys
A cash purchase normally closes three to five weeks after you find the flat; with a mortgage it takes two to four months. The road has seven steps and only one of them is irreversible — the second to last, at the notary.
ReadFor buyers
Wola or Mokotów — where to buy a flat in Warsaw
In Wola you buy a new building next to the metro and pay more per square metre; in Mokotów you buy a specific quarter — and there are several, from pre-war tenements to 1970s blocks in Służew — paying less per metre but more attention to choosing well.
ReadFor buyers
Praga-Południe or Ursynów — where to buy a flat
For similar money you get two different things here: in Praga-Południe you are closer to the centre, in older building stock, with Saska Kępa next door; in Ursynów you get the metro along the whole district, a forest nearby and estates designed as a whole.
ReadFor buyers
New from a developer or resale: which to buy
From a developer you buy a building with no history and move in later, after a fit-out you arrange yourself; on the resale market you buy a history you can verify and get the keys at once — and the difference in price per square metre says less about this than people assume.
ReadFor investors
Where to buy a flat to let in Warsaw
For letting you do not buy a district, you buy a commute: a flat ten minutes from a metro station lets faster and higher than an identical one twenty minutes away, and that gap is wider than the gap between most districts.
ReadFor investors
A studio or a two-room flat to let
A studio brings higher rent per square metre and lets faster; two rooms bring a steadier tenant and an easier resale — and the difference in yield is usually smaller than the difference in hassle.
ReadFor investors
Is it worth buying a flat with a tenant in it
When you buy a flat with a tenant, you step into their lease exactly as it stands — a sale does not end the tenancy — so what decides the value of this deal is not the price but the content of the lease and whether the tenant pays.
ReadFor buyers
Mortgage in Poland for foreigners
A foreigner can get a mortgage in Poland and needs no official permission for it — this is a bank decision, not a government one. Three things decide it: your residence status, your down payment and the currency you earn in.
ReadFor buyers
What buying a flat really costs on top of the price
On top of the price of the flat you need roughly one to four per cent of its value. The spread comes from two things: whether you buy from a developer or on the secondary market, and whether this is your first flat.
ReadFor buyers
What documents you need to buy a flat in Poland
There are fewer documents than people expect, but they sit in three different places: some you bring, some the seller has to obtain, and some only come into being at the bank. The longest wait is on the seller's certificates — and it is those, not your papers, that move the signing date.
ReadFor buyers
Buying property in Poland as a foreigner — when a permit is needed
A self-contained flat in Poland can be bought by any foreigner, with no permit and regardless of citizenship. A ministry permit only comes into play for a house with land or a plot — and only for buyers from outside the European Economic Area.
ReadFor buyers
Buying a flat in Warsaw as a Ukrainian citizen
A Ukrainian citizen buys a flat in Poland on exactly the same terms as a Pole and with no permit of any kind. The real difficulties lie elsewhere: in documents issued in Ukraine, in the language of the notarial deed, in the marital property regime and in moving the money to Poland.
ReadFor buyers
Can you buy a flat in Poland with cash
The law does not forbid a private individual from paying for a flat in banknotes, but almost nobody does — and not because of a ban. The notary and the bank are legally required to establish where the money came from, and banknotes cannot be described that way. So the price moves by transfer, or through a notarial deposit.
ReadFor buyers
Taking delivery of a flat from a developer: what to check and what to record
Handover is the one moment when you have the upper hand: until the protocol is signed, the developer wants it closed. Once you sign with no remarks, the same defect stops being a condition of handover and becomes a warranty claim — with deadlines, letters and your burden of proof.
ReadFor investors
A buy-to-let flat, turnkey: choosing, fitting out, letting
A buy-to-let flat is not one purchase but three separate projects: choosing the unit, getting it into a state someone will rent, and finding the tenant. Money disappears not inside those stages but at the joints between them — and that is the whole difference between a yield calculated and a yield achieved.
ReadFor sellers
Tax on selling a flat in Poland — when it actually applies
Selling a flat is taxed only if it happens before five years have passed, counted from the end of the year in which you acquired it. After that you pay nothing and file nothing.
ReadDistrict guides
A separate series: what a district is like from the inside, how to get around, what a flat really costs — with prices calculated from our own market monitoring.