Moving to Poland to either buy or build a house

Hi all, we are looking for a bit advice/guidance please.

Our situ - My wife is Polish, myself Scottish, we are married 10 years, have a child together.

The plan;

Move to Poland, hopefully 2023. Buy either land and build or buy a house with land and convert/upgrade.
The land would be to move towards a more self sufficient and healthier life.
We would want to be off grid or at least partially.

Questions;

1. What is the limit/size of land we/my wife can buy? Budowlana, rolno-budowlana
2. Is there restrictions with land only or house with land?
3. Can anybody think of further restrictions/limitations/barriers we could be faced with?

Many thanks in advance...

If she is Polish, you can buy anything without restrictions except agricultural land which has huge size limits:

Polish law places a number of restrictions on transactions involving agricultural land lots covering an area of more than 0.3 ha. Individual farmers enjoy special legal status under Polish law. In principle, only a person qualified as an individual farmer is allowed to buy agricultural land.

dudkowiak.com/property-purchase-in-poland/buying-agricultural-land/

You can definitely buy more than 0.3 ha. The interpretation of 'farmer' is quite loose in reality. I know for a fact that with a Polish spouse, you can buy 10,000 square metres and if you just keep a few hens and make a wild flower meadow that will count as 'farming'. Your real problem will lie in officials who should know better, not really understanding the law because it's overly complex. This will include notaries and sometimes lawyers! In Poland, most things are doable, but it can take several attempts and is pretty exhausting. Compared to the UK, everything feels like a huge effort. You just have to gird your loins Game of Thrones style and get ready to do battle :)

A non farmer can buy:

Unlimited agricultural plot of up to 0.3 ha.
Habitat with an area not exceeding 0.5 ha - provided that the buildings were built before April 30, 2016. The term "habitat" covers farm buildings, i.e. a residential house with farm buildings that constitute a whole.

An agricultural plot of up to 1 ha, provided that the National Agricultural Support Center (KOWR) does not exercise its privilige of first purchaser.

if one wants more than 1 ha, then you need to deal with more red tape:

According to the regulations, a person who is not a farmer may purchase a plot of more than 1 ha, although this requires the consent of the General Director of the National Agricultural Support Center. The application is submitted by the seller, who must additionally prove that it was not possible to sell the land to an individual farmer. In addition, the buyer is obliged to conduct agricultural activities on the property being purchased.

Not land,until he has been a resident of Poland for2 or 3 years(I forgot) or he has to take permission to buy land.I dont know the name of the office,but know where it is in Warsaw in Mokotov.All aplications from whole Poland are submitted there and can take up to 3 months(If you dont know anyone or pay:))).Best part is they didnt have any legal form to fill out as application.Has to be typed or handwritten.Permission fee was almost 1500pln.

I would stay away from rolna land,a mess with regulations.

You're wrong about that. If his spouse is Polish and they have the usual common property arrangement, it's enough for one half of the couple to satisfy the requirements.


It's not really that complicated. You wouldn't want the hassle because living a healthier, self-sufficient lifestyle on a small holding, with a veggie garden and hens etc is not your goal. But that's what the OP wants so for him the extra bother may be worth it.


It doesn't have to be anything very arduous though. What you do at your summer house with the veggies etc would be enough or keep a couple of goats, a pig, a few ducks or geese and Bob's your uncle :))

Many thanks for the input, all taken into consideration - we are doing our research...

Bob the Builder?? Yes, I used to read these stories to my kids 15 years ago.

That wasnt the law till 2006,spouse needed written permission to buy anything related to land.Ionly a flat could be bought without permission as I went through that permission procedure to have my name added to the property..I wonder if the changed it now.

Sixteen years is s a long time in a country recently acceded to the EU and with many changes of government. So many laws have changed and even the education system has been reformed three times during those years, so unless you're bang up to date with your information it's wiser not to advise people.


No, it's a much older expression than that :) Nobody is really sure of the origins but it was first documented in the 1920s. It's sometimes concluded with 'and Fanny's your aunt'.


Best of luck with everything!

Its for me to decide,BTW,I am not your student.


Here read this:
justlanded.com/english/Poland/Poland-Guide/Property/Permissions
They just changed a little clause.

We almost get the feeling the posts are getting moved constantly. My wife keeps researching. Its a challenge but we are determined to get there in 2023. Many thanks again for all the input from everybody... J

We found a piece of land which ticks a few boxes. However it is just over 2 hectares (rolno budowlana) and as far as we understand we would be committed to 5 years before we could sell it on. Not that we would want to as this is where we want to settle but life changes, things happen. Is there anyway to get out of the 5 years? My wife seems to think that if you are a farmer it does not apply? I am not a farmer but want to farmer the land. Thank you as always for any input.

Maybe we could request the land be separated into two lots with my wife buying one and my mother and law buying the other and passing over to us in the future? This would allow the land to stay in the same family??

It is not easy to get designated as a farmer - in your case virtually impossible

It is possible to split up farmland into plots but very time consuming and quite expensive

Once done it is then difficult to sell farmland in the future - as you will need to find a farmer from that powiat to buy it

The govt made these laws to stop people buying farmland and paying lower social security- but the end result is that rural land becomes illiquid and difficult to mortgage.