The Live Guide to Buying Property in Poland

I call this guide live because it is fully open source, and you copy it and/or help improve it on Google Docs. I will keep updating it with new information as I learn more.

I’m not a realtor, mortgage consultant, nor a lawyer. I’m just a guy who bought a house and learned a ton of information that is worth sharing. This is not legal, financial, or any type of advice.

In this guide, I’ll try to share all the information I learned during our process when buying a home.

This post is in two sections. One about obtaining a mortgage, one about finding a property and doing the paperwork. If you have cash, skip the mortgage part.

I found it difficult to format this post. So I’ll make it a Q/A.

Section I: The mortgage

What’s the first thing I should do?

Talk to one or more mortgage consultants.

It’s completely free to meet with mortgage consultants, they’re paid by the banks. They share an incredible amount of useful information. Meeting with the mortgage consultant instantly changed owning a home from a dream to a reality that is a bunch of paper work away.

It is recommended to bring a copy of your last PIT submission to them so they would understand your finances easily.

What’s the second thing I need to do?

Find a property.

Annoyingly, you can’t do anything without finding a property first. You can’t obtain a mortgage unless you have a preliminary agreement with a seller. So before you do anything, you have to find a property.

Do I need X, Y, or Z?

As a general rule, whether it’s a down payment, permanent residence card, a job contract, etc… Most requirements are set by each individual bank. Some banks don’t touch foreigners, some banks require a 20% down payment, some banks require a permanent residence card, etc… That’s why it’s important to meet with a consultant, they will weed out all the banks that don’t work for you. But in most cases, you’ll find a bank that will lend you money. Naturally, banks being banks, the fewer options you have, they more they squeeze you.

How long should my residence card be valid for?

Two+ years of future validity is optimal. But some banks accept one year.

Do I need a down payment?

As explained above, it depends on the bank. However, generally speaking, having a 20% (of the property value) down payment gives you many more bank options and a better interest rate. And the higher the down payment, the more options you’ll get.

Generally speaking, having less than 10% is pretty tough for a few reasons:

1. Banks.
2. To reserve the property and ensure it won’t be sold to someone else, you need a preliminary agreement. To sign this agreement, you usually pay a deposit of 10%. This payment is counted as part of the down payment if the transaction works out.

Personal opinion: The banks care about the size of the down payment not because they want you to borrow less, they want you to borrow more. But because it is additional collateral for their investment. The banks like you more if you want to buy a 1,200,000zl house with a 300,000zl down payment, than a 1,000,000zl house with a 200,000zl down payment.

Do I need a job contract?

Having a permanent contract (Umowa o pracę) is certainly the best option because it’s challenging for your employer to lay you off and because your real income is crystal clear. But I obtained a mortgage without having one. Banks are reasonable (i.e. want your money) and if you can prove having a stable income for a prolonged period of time, they don’t mind.

Important caveat

If you run your own business, and pay your taxes in lump sum (ryczałt), meaning you don’t declare your costs to the tax office, the banks will be a bit skittish. Because they don’t really know your profits. They will ask you to fill a profit & loss sheet, and you’re set.

What the hell is a WIBOR?

In simple terms, the government (Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF)) sets an interest rate that sets the tone for the entire credit market. Banks use this rate as the baseline for the interest rate. When they lend you money, they add a 0.5 – 2% margin to that rate. If this rate changes, your interest rate will change with it. Unless you have a fixed mortgage. Mortgages in Poland can be fixed for up to 5 years.

You can view the current WIBOR rate here.

Can I pay early if I get extra money?

Yes. You’re allowed, by law, to pay your debt any time you want. For the first three years, the banks are allowed to charge you up to 3% of the amount you want to pay early. After that, you can pay as much as you want freely. Note that the banks are allowed, not required. Most banks don’t charge for early repayment.

Banks are not allowed to charge you interest without them taking risk. Meaning, you’ll never pay interest on money you don’t owe. If you decide to pay the whole amount you borrowed the next day, the bank is required to accept the deal and settle your debt without charging you any interest.

Can I sell the property while it’s on a mortgage?

Absolutely. When someone buys your property, you’ll get the full amount, take it to the bank, and settle your debt and move on. As mentioned above, they’re required to accept your money and settle your debt. This doesn’t have any negative consequences on your credit score or such. You can sell your property at any time.

Can I sell the property and use the money to buy another?

No. You have to pay the bank back, then get another mortgage for your next property.

Will my spouse be part of the mortgage?

Yes. Unless you have something like a prenup, which is called Separation of Assets (Podział majątku wspólnego) in Poland, your spouse will be a co-owner of the property you buy. It’s not 50/50, both of you own 100% of the property. And this means, both of you have to be on the mortgage. This can be a good and a bad thing. The good thing is that your incomes are combined when determining how much you can borrow. The bad news, is that if one of you has debt, comes from a sanctioned country, or doesn’t have a job, etc… they can affect the process a bit.

What if I lose my job?

Once you obtain the mortgage, no one cares anymore, as long as you pay your installments, no one will bother you. But if you lose it during the process, that would probably derail it.

What if I want to make my installment smaller?

You can! You can always make your installment smaller. This will naturally mean you’ll be in debt for a longer time, and you’ll pay more interest. Interest is a function of the amount you owe and time.

What if I want to make my installment larger?

You can, but it’s more like obtaining a new loan. You’ll have to prove that you can afford it.

Can I rent out my property?

It’s yours. Of course you can.

How long does it take to obtain a mortgage?

Between 6–9 weeks. It can take up to 12 weeks of you apply in Summer during the holidays.

How will I know the seller won’t sell the property to someone else during my mortgage process?

You’ll have to sign an agreement with them. It’s called a preliminary agreement. More on that below.

Do I need a sworn translator during signing the mortgage agreement?

Yes.

But honestly, it’s a charade. The agreement is 20–30 pages, no way the translator will be able to translate it for you on the fly. But the bank will send it a few days before singing. Ask ChatGPT to translate it. Study it well. Email them about any confusion or objections you may have. Then on signing day, just sign it.

Do you recommend a bank?

As explained, it’s not a matter of preference. Your circumstances will determine your favorite bank. Ours was Santander.

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Section II: The Property

What type of property can I buy?

Sadly, in Poland, non-EU nationals need to obtain special permission from the ministry of defense if they want to buy land. Buying a house constitutes buying land. But buying an apartment does not.

The only exempt people are the ones who have had their permanent residence card for five years. Not resided in Poland for five years, but have had a PRC for five years. These people virtually don’t exist, since you can apply for citizenship before that. Obtaining this permission basically derails the whole process. Because 1) it takes up to a year, 2) it’s obtained for a single property. Meaning the seller has to wait up to a year. Unless it’s your mom selling her house, good luck finding an owner willing to a wait a year.

But you can either buy an apartment, or a house classified as one. It’s definitely harder to find the latter, but we did it.

Here’s the list of exempt individuals.

How to find a property?

Morizon.pl is great. It’s the number one tool by far. Otodom is good, but I found morizon.pl better.

Tips for morizon.pl

1. Developers essentially spam these sites. More than half of the results will be in developer state (unfinished). To weed these out, you can filter by construction year. Set the maximum year to two years ago.
2. Be particular with your filters. The amounts of options is wild. Filter what you want to only view properties that you really want to buy.
3. Agents take phone calls way more seriously than emails and SMS. Don’t be shy to call. Real estate agents are absolutely keen to have you. If they don’t, they will find a colleague who speaks English for you.

How will I know if the property is in a good technical condition?

Some things, if damaged, can cost more than 10% of the property value to fix. As a foreigner, I highly recommend hiring an inspection company to inspect your property. It costs between 800-1200zl to do so. There are numerous details, but I will share a few tips I learned

1. There are changing regulations and laws about the insulation, building materials, and energy use of the property. If the property is due for an upgrade in one of these, and the upgrade is obligatory, you will have to pay for it. Make sure to focus on newer properties to avoid the hassle. By newer, I mean under 20 years old.
2. Avoid properties built from 1975 to 1990. These were difficult communist years, when building materials got brutally expensive and the building quality was terrible.
3. The “installations”, pipes, heating systems, electric network are expensive to fix. Check these carefully.
4. Mold can be expensive to treat. Check carefully.

We hired https://pewnylokal.pl/ and they were great. They gave us an elaborate report.

How will I know the property is in good legal condition?

The company I mentioned above has legal inspection as well. If you buy a package, it costs around 2000zl total. With that said, if I went back in time, I wouldn’t buy their legal services.

Because it turned out, the notary will check everything before issuing the deed. And if an unchecked detail is found out to be incorrect or malicious, the seller will be in a terrible position and the deed will be void. I think the security the notary offers is enough. Especially, everything is visible in the land and mortgage register, which is publicly accessible online.

Tip: If the bank is comfortable trusting the notarial deed, I should be too.

What is a preliminary agreement and do I need it notarized?

Obtaining a mortgage takes 6–9 weeks and a lot of work. So you, and the bank, have to ensure the property won’t be sold to somebody else during that time.

You have two options:

1. Sign a regular agreement with the seller on any conditions you agree upon. This agreement is free, and it can be whatever you agree upon. But if the seller flips, it will be much harder to win in court. And you run the risk of losing your 10% deposit if the seller has bad intentions.
2. Sign a notarized agreement at the notary’s office. This one is regulated by law. If the seller changes their mind, they’d have to pay you double the amount you deposited. And if they don’t, winning in court will be easy because it’s a serious unescapable contract. The downside is that this one costs a lot. See notary costs below.

In both cases, you lose your deposit if you change your mind and walk away.

Tip: ensure you seek legal advice before signing any preliminary agreements to safeguard your interests. Especially if you have doubts.

What if I reserved a property, paid the 10% deposit, but failed to obtain a mortgage?

It’s critical to specify in the preliminary agreement what should happen if you fail to obtain a loan. Don’t assume it’s impossible to not get a mortgage. It can happen, especially if the deadline in the agreement is tight. Usually, people agree that if you provide three official rejection letters, you get your deposit back. But you have to have that in writing.

Generally speaking, the courts want to know if the failure to obtain a mortgage was within your control (i.e. negligence) or not up to you at all.

So, if you obtain a loan promise, which is a document from a bank stating that they promise to loan you, but your process is ongoing, you will be safe. This promise shows that for you all you knew, you were fit to get credit, but it didn’t work out. Note that this is extra precaution and you don’t have to do this. I did it, though.

What are the notary costs?

Notary costs are heavily regulated and tied to property value. Assuming you intend to buy a property that is worth 1,000,000zl.

• Preliminary agreement costs: 3477.15 zł
• Final deed costs: 3556.67 zł

You can use the calculator here: https://www.kalkulatornotarialny.pl/

Note: if you don’t speak Polish, you’ll have to hire a sworn translator when visiting the notary. There is a notary in Warsaw who is himself a sworn translator. Makes life much easier: notariusz-tlumacz.pl

What are the agent costs?

It varies widely. Many charge the buyer nothing. Many charge you 2.5%. Each listing will indicate the costs.

What is administrative rent (czynsz administracyjny)?

When you live in an apartment, house, or anything really, there are usually collective on the community level. Who pays for the elevator? Cleaning the building? Security? CCTV? etc. These can range from 100zł to 1500zł a month. Pay attention to that when you view the property. This amount is usually higher in apartment buildings; especially the ones with security and administration companies. Owning the apartment does not mean living there is free! If you don’t want these costs, aim for a house, as many houses have no external costs or much lower ones.

What if I have more questions?

Please write them in the comments and I will add them to the guide.

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Another reminder that this is not advice. Please consult professionals before listening to any of this. I’m literally just a guy who bought a home.

This post is under GPL-3.0-or-later license. Meaning you can do whatever you like with it as long as your version remains open source too.