Housing Law in Poland—From the Cooperative Model to Flat Ownership

Abstract

In Poland, the housing system is currently based on cooperative apartments and the ownership of premises. This is due to historical conditions, because in the postwar period it was decided to foster cooperative housing; while the development of private property was impeded. After 1989, there were rapid economic and social changes, which also affected the real estate sector. It became possible to buy cooperative flats for ownership. The construction of new apartments was rapidly started and a development market was established. The owners of tenement houses made efforts to return the taken property, many of them regained the buildings, although their technical condition was very bad. There is a shortage of apartments in Poland, both available for purchase and for rent. In this chapter, I intend to present the current ownership status of apartments in Poland and the process of changes that took place, but did not solve the problems.