Life / Ekogroszek/wood pellets or gas for heating in Poland? [9]

I am in the process of deciding on a heating system for my house and not sure whether I should install a boiler system or gas. I have a gas pipe to the house which has never been connected. At present I have an old inefficient boiler for heating. I have read past postings on home heating costs from a few years ago but would like to know what the current opinion is on the most economical to use...I like the idea of using wood pellets but understand that on average, over the course of a year more pellets are used compared to ekogroszek 'coal'...Obviously I would like to make savings and at present it would seem that 'coal' is the likely winner. I believe that gas could contain hidden costs and be reasonably expensive to run.

My other concern is future legislation which I understand will impose restrictions in various regions throughout Poland on using boilers and solid fuels and is likely to take effect from 2019-20. Not sure if this is likely to become law nationwide but would welcome your views on this.

Food / Where to find a good bottle of wine in Poland? [18]

I would be grateful for some advice and help on where I can go to find good red or white 'dry' wine.... Although there are plenty of supermarkets selling wine, very often the wine I see is 'sweet' and it is quite difficult to find 'dry only' wine. I am now careful to look at the bottle label to check on whether the wine is sweet and have only really found one or two labels which are ok...Italian wine seems to provide the best 'dry' wine. Of course it does perhaps depend on price and in general I am looking at the 12-18zl range, but would be happy to pay more if the right wine was available.

Real Estate / New land law legislation in Poland will make life very difficult when it comes to selling. [21]

It would seem that the new legislation on farmland/agriculture purchase which is effective from 1 May 2016 will make things very difficult for owners of such land who wish to sell or pass it on to their family. There would appear to be many restrictions on the sale of such land. However whilst it seems to be intended to target foreign buyers it will seem that farmers will be severely restricted in what they can do with their farmland and the small print in the legislation provides much more detail on how things will be after 1 May.

- No EU nationals will be able to purchase farmland.
- No Polish nationals will be able to purchase farmland, unless they intend to become farmers and use the land for farming purposes for a minimum of 10 years.

- Existing owners of farmland cannot pass on the land to their family unless it will continue to be used as farmland.
- Anyone selling farmland can only sell to someone in their immediate local area and it must be bought by someone who will use the land for farming.

- If unable to find a buyer the government body for land will acquire the land at market value. (likely to be less than current value)

- Any abuse of the law on this will result in land being acquired the government body for land and sold on at market value.
- As land value drops farmers will find it difficult to sell at a price which covers their mortgage/loan.

These are just some points which appear in the legislation. I have attached a link to a short article on this subject which you may find helpful. Just wanted to see what your thoughts are on this.

thenews.pl/1/12/Artykul/211611,Act-to-restrict-purchase-of-land-by-foreigners-passed

Real Estate / Changes to mortgages for EU citizens in Poland with foreign income. [34]

It would seem that further restrictions imposed by banks will now make it even more difficult for EU citizens to buy a house in Poland using foreign income. Today I returned to the bank who in February informally agreed that I could take out a mortgage given my circumstances.. We went there to discuss further details and to prepare for the purchase of the house we now intend to buy. It came as quite a shock to hear the mortgage advisor apologise and tell us that the rules have now changed concerning mortgages as follows: (I am planning to arrange a small mortgage using my monthly pension which originates from the UK.)

It appears that since the 14 March this bank (and perhaps all other banks) now require me (and I presume other EU citizens in my position) to have a second income originating in Poland which must pay more than the foreign income generated by my monthly pension. So in short I need to have a job or business which pays more than my pension before this bank will consider my request for a mortgage.

Whilst my pension is not that substantial I think it would be really difficult to find a job which will pay me more than my monthly pension. I just find this quite incredible.

Naturally I was quite shocked with this news and asked how long the advisor knew about the changes. He said that he had only heard recently and seemed to suggest that it was other internal banking officials who changed the rules and not the government. He did say that had we provided the usual paperwork in February then we may have been able to obtain a mortgage based on my UK pension. Finally he said that his bank had a lot of other customers in my position (I presume other EU nationals)

My wife and I went to another bank and following checks on income, age etc said that they could give us a mortgage providing we paid for it in UK Sterling....(at the moment I have receive my pension in Zloty's) This would require us to set up a sterling bank account so that the bank would either receive all of my pension in sterling or just the monthly payment for my mortgage) What was interesting was that when we mentioned about the 'new rules' she said that it must be internal bank rules because her bank are fine with giving us a mortgage. However this could all be quite complicated and financially difficult because of the exchange rate etc with my personal bank and transferring the funds to this new bank for our mortgage.

We did however go to my own personal bank (who many months ago confirmed that someone in my position couldn't get a mortgage with them for other reasons) to see if it was possible to open a 'sterling' account (assuming we would move forward with the mortgage at the other bank) Not possible as they only have euro and zloty accounts. However on discussing our recent bad news from the original bank they did confirm that the new rules apply to all banks... The bank was however happy to give us a personal loan which unfortunately was less than we needed but nevertheless would enable me to obtain some finance. She just needed to make sure that I had permanent residency in Poland. My wife explained that we will have permanent residency when we buy our house but that a the moment we have a temporary address. I have already applied for residency and although the letter and card I received does not specifically say that I have permanent residency it does say something about residency so not sure if this will suffice.........

Thought you may like to hear about this new change which at the moment is really making life difficult for us to buy a house which has taken many months to find.

It would be helpful to hear your comments.

Real Estate / Buying property in Poland [41]

I am in the process of viewing properties for sale with my wife. I am British and my wife is Polish. We have already seen quite a few houses and have more to see tomorrow. An estate agent who is dealing with us tomorrow mentioned to my wife that we may have problems buying a house because I am British. We already knew about this and issues surrounding the purchase of farmland. Additionally the estate agent stated that whatever money we have to buy a property my wife must prove it belongs to her 100%. Any finance we have are proceeds from the sale of our previous house. We may decide to top this up with a small mortgage. I have no problems with my wife buying the house in her name because I was intending to arrange with the notaire to draw up a legal paragraph so that we each have 50% of any property we purchase. I presume that if my wife were to die before myself then any property we bought in her name would pass to me and vice versa. (we have no children) I am surprised to hear that my wife would have to prove that our joint financial assets do in fact belong to her as we have always shared anything we have earned over the years. This seems very odd to me and really difficult to comply with since everything we have is shared. I don't think that either of us can prove that we own our assets 100%..!! ..they are shared. We will be living off my pension and this will be the only income we have in Poland. We may decide to work but at present do not intend to do so. Can anyone who has also experienced this help provide a solution.

Real Estate / Refusal for a mortgage in Poland [18]

I know that a lot has been written about mortgages in Poland but wanted to share my recent experience. I asked my bank PKO for information on obtaining a mortgage with them. My wife is Polish and I am British. Although the staff were very helpful and tried their best, they said that because I was not earning an income in Poland it was not possible to get a mortgage with them. I receive a monthly pension of 6,000 zlotys but can work if necessary. I intend to buy a property and will put down about 200,000 zl towards a house purchase and plan to make up any difference, say about 100,000 to 150,000 zl with a mortgage. We were told that I or my wife must have a job and be earning in Poland in order to get a mortgage. (neither of us have a job in Poland but we could if necessary)

The bank clerk said that normally we would have to be working in Poland for about 3 months to get a mortgage or even better a year. They did however say it was possible to get a loan for 100,000-200,000zl but this would have to be paid back over an 8 year period, which would make monthly payments too expensive. They were unable to offer a loan over a longer period. I find this all very odd and I would have expected mortgages to be based on fixed income rather than the mere fact of having a job. I did ask that if I did have a job how much I would have to earn before I could get a 150,000zl mortgage and the clerk wasn't able to answer. The clerk did however suggest that although she would like to help all this was to prevent foreign buyers from buying property in Poland. I thought that as we are in the EU that the purchase of property would in general be something banks would be knowledgeable on and would embrace.

Would anyone be able to share their experience or could anyone advise on how we can move on and get a mortgage. Thank you.