Countries · Poland
What to check in Poland before you sign.
Housing is scarce and cramped. Buyers often buy into stock whose condition and occupancy cannot be read from the listing at all.
What costs the most money in Poland
33.7 percent of the population lived in overcrowded homes in 2024. The EU average is 16.9 percent, so half as much.
Purchase costs
0.7 to 2.8%
of the purchase price, on top of the price in the listing.
- Transfer tax on a purchase from a private seller2 %
- First-time buyer with no previous home ownershipexempt
- Sixth flat in the same development6 %
- Land register entry, ownership200 PLN
- Notary fee, example PLN 500,000around 0.7%
Source: Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Justice, 2025. On a purchase from a developer, VAT applies instead of transfer tax. There is no official rule for agents' commissions, so they are not included in the range.
The trap for tenants
Under the so-called occasional tenancy the tenant has to go to a notary in person, submit to enforcement and name a replacement home together with its owner's consent. Lose that replacement address and you lose the protection. The deposit there may run to six months' rent, and under an ordinary tenancy even to twelve.
Energy and the duty to renovate
The energy certificate has to be handed over at the notary appointment when selling, and as a copy when letting. Since 28 April 2023 energy figures and CO2 emissions have had to appear in the listing itself. The certificate is valid for ten years.
Source: Gesetz über die Energiecharakteristik von Gebäuden und Ministerium für Entwicklung
Certificate validity: 10 years
What to watch for in Poland in particular
The deception is mostly about floor area. The competition and consumer protection authority UOKiK imposed fines totalling over 1.6 million złoty on six developers for simply counting in the area under non-load-bearing partition walls and not telling buyers about it. In Poland you pay by the square metre, so every square metre counted in is hard cash.
Official maps in Poland
4 map layers lie directly over your property.
Not as an average for the district, but at your exact address, with a legend and a visible source. Every layer can be switched on separately.
Check it yourself
The official bodies in Poland.
Scan my Home checks against these sources. You can call up every one of them yourself, and that is exactly the point: a figure you cannot verify is not a figure, it is a claim.
Ownership & charges
Owner, mortgages, charges
Value & land value
Cadastral data, parcels, area
Building & zoning
Gmina / Plan zagospodarowania
Zoning, building permit
The market in Poland
545,800 notarial purchase deeds for property in 2024, up 6.8 percent on the year before.
Source: Hauptamt für Statistik GUS, veröffentlicht 08.07.2025
A real dossier from this country
See what the analysis found on an actual listing in Poland — every figure with its source.
Open the example dossierOther countries