What will change in Real Estate Law in 2025?

The year 2025 brings significant changes in the area of real estate legislation in Poland. Please find below the most important regulations that will affect the processes of spatial planning, construction investments and real estate taxation.

New rules in the Planning and Spatial Development Act

• By the end of 2025, all municipalities in Poland will be obliged to adopt general plans, which will replace the current studies of spatial development conditions and directions. General plans will form the basis for adopting local spatial development plans and issuing decisions on development conditions (WZ). This will give municipalities a greater influence on development. The general plans will apply to the entire territory of the municipality. Decisions on development conditions will have to be consistent with the guidelines indicated in the general plan.
• In addition, it should be mentioned that amendments introducing obligations to include more parameters in decisions on WZs have already entered into force. This change is also aimed at increasing the precision of decisions and reducing spatial conflicts. The new WZ decisions must additionally specify, among other things, the maximum development intensity, the minimum share of biologically active area or the minimum number of parking spaces.

Changes to real estate tax in 2025

As of 2025, new rules on real estate tax come into force. For a full discussion of the changes, please see our article Real Estate Tax: New rules from 2025, and please find a brief summary below:

• Autonomous definitions of building and structure: New definitions have been introduced to avoid interpretative uncertainties in the tax context.
• Garages will be considered as a residential part of a residential building, which will result in a lower property tax.
• The legislator has provided for an extension of the deadline for filing the 2025 Real Estate tax return until the end of 31 March 2025.

New rules in the Planning and Development Act

The planned date for the adoption of the draft by the Council of Ministers is the first quarter of 2025. The bill aims to facilitate access to land for housing development by:

• Removal of restrictions on the trading of agricultural land within cities, which will allow easier conversion of such land for construction purposes (expansion of the catalogue of land excluded from the regime of the Act on shaping the agricultural system).
• Simplification of planning procedures, including faster adoption of local spatial development plans.
• Restoration of perpetual usufruct for residential purposes to increase the stability of investments in the residential sector – a solution restoring the legal status before 2019.
• Changes to the procedures for location resolutions for residential developments to make them faster and more transparent.

Possible changes to the Construction Law in 2025

As of August 2024, a bill is being drafted to amend the Building Law, which could come into force in 2025:

• New rules for small houses up to 70 m²: The proposal includes a clarification of the provisions concerning the construction of a single-family residential building with a construction area of up to 70 m², in particular with regard to the verification of a submitted application, the manner of dealing with such an application in case of, for example, its incompleteness.
• Simplification of the investment and construction process: It is planned to extend the catalogue of construction objects and works exempted from the need to obtain a construction permit in favour of a notification (among others, small kiosks and street sales pavilions, backyard shelters and hiding places or free-standing telecommunication containers).
• Regulation of shelters: The new regulations will set out rules for the conversion and adaptation of shelters and ad hoc hiding places for the protection of residents of single-family dwellings.

No more health contribution on the sale of fixed assets!

As announced, the Poland government has reformed the health contribution. In the previous state of law, the receipt of income from the sale of a fixed asset (e.g. a company car) was subject to a mandatory health contribution.

• As early as January 2025, there will be changes with regard to the obligation to pay the health insurance premium when selling a fixed asset.
• Income from the sale of fixed assets will no longer be included in the calculation of the health contribution (both for persons settling on the general basis and as a flat tax). Also for persons settling in the form of a lump sum on registered income, income from the sale of fixed assets will be excluded from the basis for calculating the health contribution.
• Previously, the health contribution for persons settling on a general basis was 9% of the income obtained in the preceding month, and in the case of flat taxation – 4.9%. For lump-sum tax on registered income, the contribution rate depends on the amount of income earned (in 2024 – PLN 419.46, PLN 699.11 or PLN 1,258.39).
• The draft also introduces the possibility to choose according to the old or new rules. This means that entrepreneurs who have chosen the form of taxation according to the general rules or the flat tax will be able to decide whether to take into account the costs and income from the sale of fixed assets when calculating the health contribution.

How will the 2025 changes affect your Real Estate?

The year 2025 will bring a number of significant changes, which will affect investment, tax and planning processes. The obligation for municipalities to adopt general plans will give authorities more control over development.

Definitions in the Local Taxes and Fees Act (building, structure) will also change, and legal entities will be able to extend the deadline for filing their Real Estate tax return for 2025. The planned entry into force of the Act on Solutions to Increase the Availability of Land for Housing is intended to facilitate the availability of the above-mentioned land by removing the limitations that currently exist.

The provisions of the Building Law are also likely to be unified and simplified . The absurdity of the obligation to pay a health contribution on the sale of fixed assets will also disappear.

If you are interested in the below-described issues and would like to know more details about the draft and planned changes, we invite you to contact the Real Estate Law Department of our law firm.