Brit buying Polish land

I am British and my wife is Polish. We are looking to buy land in the village she is from. The aim is to eventually build a house on this at some stage. The purchase itself is slightly complicated as it is dealing with villagers and, once the plot is purchased, I should be able to then buy the plot next to it. I would need funding for both but obviously I can't commit to a build until I can confirm whether I'll get both plots. The plots are only around £12000-£14000 each but the issue is time so I would need to finance this with a mortgage. My current circumstances and loading mean I am unlikely to get a reasonable deal in the UK trying to obtain an unsecured loan of £25k+.

My wife made some enquiries with banks when we were there in the summer but they basically said it was unlikely she could get lending as we both live and work in UK and have no Polish income. I was reading recently that some brokers based in Poland are offering services to UK buyers being able to have access to the Polish market with a GBP mortgage. Also, mBank in London offer mortages for Polish passport holders and PKO in London offers mortages for anyone for Polish property.

Has anyone had any experience of any of this recently?

The best advice I can give you is this....make TRIPLE sure that it is possible for you to buy the land. Recently, the Law on purchasing arable/farm lands has changed. I would not touch anything unless it already had a WZ attached to it. Make sure that the person you intend buying anything from has the RIGHT to sell it. Examine their paperwork carefully.

Second point: remember that you may be dealing with people who will promise you the earth, take your money and then leave you in the s*** and no one, but no one will give a damn.

Unless you speak Polish or your wife is WELL VERSED in Polish reality, be extra vigilant and extra, extra careful.

Sound advice - the new law has also made it very difficult to take a mortgage on farmland as it is far less liquid so banks dont like using it as collateral any more.

It will be very difficult to get a mortgage here without Polish zloty earnings. for the money you are talking about you might be better off spending the time working as intensively as possible in the UK and put in every hour of overtime you can - if you could get that 25k down to 10k then it might be possible for your wife to get an unsecured loan here. As it stands no bank is going to go out on a limb and bend their mortgage rules for a 120.000 zloty transaction.

Suggest you also take a look at build costs - they are increasing very quickly in Poland as construction wages are going up, so maybe revisit whatever calculations you have done.

"ooking to buy land in the village she is from. The aim is to eventually build a house on this at some stage."

In your circumstances I would strongly advise you not to buy land to build on , better to buy a house (Run down if you don't have the budget) with some land then renovate, the risks of land purchase and new build projects for a private individual are too high in my opinion.

Thanks for the replies guys. I appreciate all the advice. I have looked at properties and have seen some much cheaper than the land and build would be but, as always, it is all about location, location, location.

When I retire I aim to split my time evenly between the 2 countries so will ideally want the place across the street from close friends and family to keep an eye out. We have been offered other land, in the middle of nowhere for free as her mother was given large expanses of rural farmland after the death of my wife's grandmother. It is just too isolated in my opinion. I don't expect this to ever be a sound investment financially but, I have 4 kids, all very much English & Polish, all spend the summers in Poland and are bilingual etc. The house will be in the middle of where they have grown up really and will hopefully be shared amongst them for use by grandchildren etc. long after I am gone.

The inital plot I am looking at had a wooden house that has recently been demolished. The owners now live in the USA and are keen to sell. The plot next to it has an abandoned wooden house with no electricity. It it owned by an alcoholic who is currently residing in a better house owned by his alcoholic friend who he looks after as he is ill. This plot will be tricky as he may part-own it with brothers after a death etc.

I have sent a few emails out to Polish brokers who specialise in this kind of thing and will update with their responses. At the moment I like the idea of an unsecured loan in Poland. To complicate matters I am looking to buy a new house here in the UK to so I am keen to separate the 2 finance commitments as much as possible between countries.

The key really is to secure the land. Ideally both.The second plot though may require the owner to be plied with drink and led to the solicitor's office with a briefcase of cash. We'll see! Construction costs I can worry about later. I have 20 years to build a house and her 5 brothers are builders so we'll be in good hands with local contacts etc.

You will of course always DO what you wish. We cannot give you any advice except BE CAREFUL.
I feel that you will end up with egg on your face. No one is going to do anything for you for free, no matter what they say now.

Let us know though, how you get on. I could be wrong - but ....

Huge red warning flag! Polish inheritance law is essentially a dysfunctional cluster fvkk and relatives are generally loathe to sign away anything they think they have a claim/right to. I wouldn't try to buy that with my worst enemy's money until the ownership issue is settled.

If your wife still has family and connections in the village that could definitely help (as some will be less likely to try to screw you over as their reputations could suffer).