Poland’s government plans to allow local authorities to control certification of residential units in hotels and investment apartments from 2027.
Regulatory Changes Coming
Changes are coming in the rules for issuing certificates for collective residential buildings. These will be included in a draft amendment to the act on residential property ownership, which will be published today by the Ministry of Development and Technology. According to these, from 2027, local governments will decide whether to issue such certificates for these types of buildings.
Additionally, units in these buildings will have to meet the same conditions as apartments. This means, for example, that such a unit will have to have at least 25 square meters.
Addressing Developer Loopholes
The issue of issuing certificates for the independence of a unit in collective residential buildings generates opposition and conflict at two levels: planning and the standard of the units themselves. Therefore, at the request of local government communities, the government has prepared specific legal solutions that will help prevent bad practices, says Tomasz Lewandowski, Deputy Minister of Development and Technology.
The problem is that some investors, on land designated in local plans for services, build apartments under the guise of collective residential buildings (officially utility units), then apply to the municipality for certificates of independence of the units and sell them as separate ownership along with a share in the land, which is significant.
Standards for Residential Units
If an investor builds a collective residential building on a plot designated for services, and then separates units and sells them as investment apartments, in reality they are circumventing the competences of the local government. In such a building, people lead the same life as in ordinary residential buildings, which generates additional traffic, the need for parking spaces, and expectations directed not at the developer but at the local government.
He adds that it is the local government, not the developer, that decides on public space, so for example it may consider it advisable and appropriate to locate a typical hotel in the buffer zone of a park or lake, rather than a building with apartments intended for housing.
Industry Concerns
Building housing on land designated for services is not the only problem. Another is the standards of the units. The development ministry explains that in the case of residential units, there are regulations specifying minimum area, requirements for sunlight or number of parking spaces, while in the case of utility units these standards are much lower.
In practice, this means that an investor who formally implements a collective residential building and then separates units and sells them as separate ownership does not have to meet the civilizational standards provided for in housing. Thanks to this, they circumvent the rules that would normally guarantee appropriate quality and standard of living, emphasizes the Deputy Minister.
Local Government Support
The development ministry admits that not everyone uses the described practices. The state’s intention is to target those entities that abuse the regulations, not honest companies. Honest developers operate in the market under unequal competition with entities that build collective residential buildings, incurring lower costs.
In spa towns, many collective residential buildings are created, but practically there is no control over them. At first glance, this looks beneficial – the municipality gains tourists – but in reality it generates enormous costs and leads to the degradation of the locality, says Jan Golba, Mayor of Muszyna and President of the Association of Health Resort Municipalities of the Republic of Poland.
