How to buy forest land in Poland?

I'm a Polish citizen through descent and I'd like to move to southern Poland in a few years (probably Podkarpackie or Lesser Poland), buy a forest with some money I have saved up and live off the grid. I know there's a bunch of hoops to get agricultural land, which would require getting a 1 year course to become a certified farmer, I don't really care for that though, I'd be more interested to buy forest land not for business/agricultural purposes (I read forest land is categorized differently from agricultural/recreational land etc.).

Could anyone guide me on the process for buying forest land (NON BUILDABLE; I read somewhere that buildable land costs more in terms of taxes and I don't intend to build, I'd be just fine living in a mobile home/trailer on said land) and the property taxes per hectare? I found this link (przyjazne-deklaracje.pl/podatek-lesny/) which says "the fee is payable per hectare and is calculated as 0.220 cubic meters of timber at its average price". What does that mean? How do they know how many cubic meters of timber I have in my forest? Also, I don't intend to sell timber, just to use it for heating/cooking. I'd like to buy at least 3-4 hectares of forest. How would I go about that and how much in tax would I pay each year?

I have some. The taxes are small - less than 100 per hectare in my case

But you can't just cut down trees when you feel like it (though it was common practice 10 years ago it is getting rare for Poles to do that)

Note also that when you find a place the state has the right of first purchase. They don't often use that but it can delay the process.

Related: https://polishforums.com/archives/2010-2019/real-estate/poland-buying-farm-63876/

Cool, I thought it'd be much worse. How many hectares do you own? Did you have any roadblocks to buy the forest? If yes how did you solve them? And do you live on the forest (if yes is it buildable or do you live in a mobile home)?

Also, I don't plan to cut trees for fun, just the bare minimum for heating/cooking, as I don't really care for electricity/running water.

By the way would it be fine to have a small greenhouse for personal use on forest land?

You probably don't use deodorant either... lol. I knew a guy who thought living in the woods was 'authentic' too. He used to bathe in the Mississippi River, and when he wanted a hot bath, he dragged out an old tub, set it on blocks, and lit a fire underneath. Real luxury living.

there weren't many obstacles but it was 20+ years ago. About 4 hectares. It is next to existing property we have and we bought it at auction. Another villager turned up wanting money to drop out the auction but we didn't agree to that.

No you can't put a greenhouse there, and I doubt you can put a mobile home. You also can't knock down trees for fuel. When you buy you have to sign some undertakings to look after the forest. In practice you won't get any hassle from the authorities unless a neighbor tells them.

I know what you are doing is popular in US / Canada but in Poland it's eccentric and I advise you to think it through

Some people are content with living alienated in smelly and loud concrete hells and to delude themselves of living in the luxury of modernity while working 40 hours a week and barely surviving paycheck to paycheck for 40 years so that they may finally "own" the overpriced apartment they took an exorbitant mortgage on for the sake of acting like everyone else and subject themselves to indentured servitude, with the highest topics of reflection in such a life being football games and gossip, and the biggest existential aspirations being going on a vacation for 2 weeks a year to some place crowded by a bunch of desperate people like themselves who live the same lifestyle.

Some other people are content with not selling their time and soul for basic material goods and instead achieve such goods via self sufficiency (food, heating, a roof over their head) having the remaining time for their individual and existential development, all the while being in contact with creation and its beauty, far from the pits of human greed and existential shortsightedness that are cities.

To each their own.

Thanks for the info; I like Poland but as far as Europe goes there Scandinavian countries seem to be friendlier.

Are you going to build a house on the land? It may change things as far as land use / taxes are concerned.

It would change it a lot.

You can't build on forest land

A few basic things

- you can't knock down trees without permission
- you can't dig holes for media
- you can plant trees and even get money from govt and EU for that

Why not buy a dzialka in an ogrod next to a forest - there are lots of them. It's pleasant enough to do the Good Life thang, you will have some neighbors and nobody will hassle you

@Ron2
It depends. If taxes are too much of a hassle I'd be ok with just living in an rv or mobile home, but not sure whether that's always possible. Honestly pretty weird they won't let you live on the very land you bought.

@jon357
by how much?

is that like a small garden? Thanks for the suggestion, but am I to understand there is no legal way to live in a forest in Poland? I was in Podkarpackie a few weeks ago and remember seeing trailers/mobile home/cabins in forests several dozens of meters from the street. And if you look up people living offgrid in Poland online there's some guy doing hospitality on some website and another one on facebook, both showing their cabin in the woods that they live in. How did they do it? Are they just larping and paying exorbitant taxes or is there a legit way to do it?

If it's forest land that means you are not supposed to build there. If you bought a camper van and parked it there then don't worry, you won't have many problems.

Maybe you are best off to talk to the people in those places and ask them.

There are houses in forests, usually quite old ones. They tend (depending on a few factors) to either fetch premium prices as second 'homes' or just do t reach the market. There are also issues with crime, since such houses are quite isolated.


Not weird at all. You need planning permission to build a house. Otherwise people would just build what they want regardless of the views of anyone in the area or the aesthetics of whether they build.

@jon357
how much do people pay in property tax per hectare/m2 having buildable vs non buildable land?

The US or even Canada would be more suitable for this kind of fantasy; even Siberia would be better than Poland. We are too small, and we did not protect our forests or what little is left of them to make a cozy for some weirdos who want to squat in them.

You can buy an old house and some land in remote places where few people live; that is a better option.

It varies from place to place. Much the same system as around Europe.

@Ironside
I know; the market in the US is ripe with offgrid-capable properties, but this country is going insane which is why I'm looking towards Europe.

@jon357
not really, other EU countries have a fixed % on the property's value as a way to calculate property tax, Poland has weird land classifications and it's not clear how much you'd practically end up paying yearly on your average piece of land of a certain square footage/value for non business purpose.

Not so weird, and in Poland, the rates are low. It's quite normal in parts of Europe for rates/council tax to vary according to the needs and wishes of the community in any given local authority area.

Why not look at a building plot in a village or near the edge of a town? If you like forest, there will be plenty around you. We have forest more or less on all four sides.