How to buy an apartment in Poland - can I pay in full cash?

Please I need an advice about buying an apartment in Poland.
I'd like to buy an apartment here in Poland and I'd like to know if it's possible or legal to pay in full cash without any repercussion from the govt or tax office.

The price will not be more than 300,000zł.

Sounds like someone is going to make an easy 300 grand. Caveat emptor.

Yes it is. However, you may very well need to explain how you got the money when you bring it into Poland.

The money will come from my home country.Most of it is my share of inheritance from my late dad.

I wouldn't even try and take in that kind of cash. They can seize anything over 10,000 Euro if the source isn't adequately documented - and who would risk 300k at the hands of Polish Customs?

Best just to transfer it into Poland and pay by bank transfer like a normal person.

I will have to get a lawyer before making any purchase though.The purchase will be according to the law of the land.

Since I get the money from the inheritance of my late dad,I am just thinking of passing some of it to my 5 year old son here in Poland.

And thinking that buying an apartment for him won't be a bad idea.
I and mostly his mother,my wife will be looking after this apartment when bought but will be transfered completely to my son when he comes of age.

@delphiandomie,I don't really mean paying in cash.Of course the money will be transfered to the prospective seller's account.
I just meant if it's possible to buy an apartment and pay all at once without taking any credit from the bank.
Since I always hear that people can only take credit to buy whatever here.

It is possible to pay in cash, and there won't be a problem with this (taxes will be calculated accordingly).

I am a lawyer based in Poland, so I would be able to help you with this.
contact:

But of course you can. You need to use a notary (not a lawyer - there's absolutely no reason to use one unless there's some very complicated arrangements involved) to handle the actual transaction, as well as paying 2% tax.

A good notary will guide you through the process without fuss.

@delphiandomie,@Pol attorney,thank you.
I will be around to let you guys know how it's going.

you should be OK but just make sure both the notary and seller know in advance you are not taking bank finance and that you have proof of funds with you when you go to the notary.

I once had a very bad experience with that - negotiated for a building, at the last minute decided to pay cash and not take finance (it was taking too long to arrange). When I got to the notaries we got in a bizarre Mexican standoff - I would not transfer the money until the akt notarialny was signed and they would not sign it until I transferred the money - obviously an individual's promise is worth less than a banks and the notary instead of being independent decided to funish them with lots of tales from the 90s of people who had lost their houses that way. It took about 9 hours to resolve - including showing them my bank statement, putting my bank manager on conference call etc.

If you don't speak Polish then I would take a lawyers advice - will only cost a few hundred zloty.

I have bought 2 apartments in Poland without Bank Credit and I have not had any problems.

I just signed the Akt Notarialny without transferring any funds to the developer.
Now I must send the agreed amounts by the dates specified.

A sworn translator is a better bet than paying for a lawyer, they are trained for these scenarios too.

A good thing to do is to sign first in the office of the notary an initial (preliminary) sales contract --umowa przedwstepna-- and then, after the funds are transferred into the sellers bank account, a proper sales contract can be signed. This will give 100% security to both parties of the sales contract.

@Pol attorney do you really mean the most secure way is to transfer the amount of funds to the seller, THEN get on the contract signing? for me it sounds like a "potensial" seller just got some extra ZL on his account.

Of course, no problem! I bought my flat in August 2014 and paid cash. I just needed to prove the origin of the money used to pay for flat, which is normal. I did not need a lawyer, all was done with real estate agent and notary.

No. There's a pre-contract agreement, which essentially means that the seller is obliged to sell the property at that price. They can't back out once this is signed.

@Delphia @Chiefmate

yes, this is what I mean by this-- you can't really back out after you sign an initial sales contract (if you do it in the office of the Polish notary public) If a seller refuses to sign a sales contract in the future for any reason, then a Court's decision will automatically replace his signature on the sales contract. So, in a way, this is one of the safe methods to finalize a transaction for both parties. It can save you a lot of stress in some situations.

Merged: Very difficult to spend money in Poland - very hard to blow cash there.

Hello,

I recently visited Poland.

It is a charming, quint place.

I really enjoyed Malbork Castle and Zakopane.

The one thing I noticed, however, is that it is very hard to blow cash there. Sure, this may be a good thing for me, but it shows that Polish don't know tourism yet.

I bought an apartment in Krakow and tried to pay in cash (it was insanely cheap for an apartment in a European city) and the owner looked at me like I was crazy, she also stared at my Maserati like it was some form of deity.

Overall, I liked the country.

what's the point bragging how loaded you are on the internet where you are anonymous?

They can, but, they have to pay "double" the amount of the deposit. I actually had this happen to me when I first came to Poland. I was given 15,000 dollars compensation from the seller on top of the 15,000 deposit he had to return.

That's correct. Also you can add to that amount your expenses (it happened to me once, we added to the double deposit the costs of transferring funds to Poland and back out of Poland, the costs of currency conversion to PLN and from PLN, the interpreter's bill, the translator's bill, notary costs, lost income from taking time off work to deal with purchase, etc). The seller thought he was going to make a profit by cancelling our purchase and accepting an offer so much higher that he could return double the deposit but he actually came out several thousand zloty down.


So why do you boast about your supposed £75,000 a year income?