attorney Igor Bąkowski
Bakowski Law Firm, Warsaw, Poland
As a general rule, a foreign citizen acquiring the ownership right or the right of perpetual usufruct of real estate and a foreigner acquiring or taking up shares or stocks in commercial companies based in the territory of Poland which are owners or perpetual users of real estate located in Poland require a permit from the Minister of the Interior and Administration, unless the exemptions provided for in Article 8(1) or (2) of the Act on acquisition of real estate by foreign nationals apply.
Pursuant to Article 8(1) of the Act on acquisition of real estate by foreign nationals, a permit is not required in particular for the acquisition of real estate by a legal person and non-corporate commercial company based in the territory of the Republic of Poland, controlled by foreign nationals for its statutory purposes, of undeveloped real estate whose total area in the entire country does not exceed 0.4 ha in cities.
Pursuant to Article 8(2) of the Act on acquisition of real estate by foreign nationals, a permit is not required for the acquisition of real estate, as well as purchase of stocks and shares in companies who are owners or perpetual users of real estate in Poland, foreign nationals from the European Economic Area and the Swiss Confederation.
A company from the EU, therefore it can generally purchase real estate (which is not agricultural or forest real estate) without a permit.
In case of planned acquisition of agricultural or forest real estate there are additional limitations both for Polish as well as other EU entities. There may be a case in a potential investment scenario, where a potential real estate for the investment would be partly or in whole an agricultural property (at least at some point) and such limitations would need to be taken into account. In such scenario, there would firstly be a need to change the use of the real estate to non-agricultural through rezoning or obtaining a zoning decision for the intended use (production, warehouse, office use).
In case of buying production premises, there should be no additional requirements than for Polish companies and they can be purchased without any administrative permits.
An EU company can construct production premises on the same rules as for Polish companies.
The same applies for renting production premises – there are generally no special or additional administrative or civil limitations.
For more information please contact
attorney Igor Bąkowski
tel. +48 22 633 67 66
or other lawyers from Bakowski Law Firm
bakowski.net.pl