The Portal of Housing Prices in Poland (Portal Cen Mieszkań)

The Sejm is working on the implementation of provisions facilitating business activity. One of the solutions pertains to the Act of 20 May 2021, on the protection of rights of buyers of residential units or single-family houses, and on the Developer’s Guarantee Fund. The legislator plans to create a Portal of Housing Prices in Poland [Polish name: Portal Cen Mieszkań]. What does this mean for entrepreneurs? What data will be available in it? Find answers to these questions in the following article.

What is the Portal of Housing Prices in Poland?

The Portal of Housing Prices is a new nationwide registry containing data about property prices in the Polish market. It will include transactions from both the secondary and primary (developer) markets. Statistical information regarding transaction prices of residential units and single-family houses will be continuously updated. Moreover, they will be available to everyone.

The data gathered in the Portal of Housing Prices will allow potential property buyers to obtain reliable statistical information. It will be based on territorial, temporal, and typological criteria. This will enable interested parties to choose the most favourable housing offer.

Who manages the Portal of Housing Prices in Poland?

The nationwide registry of housing transactions is created, maintained, and developed by the Insurance Guarantee Fund. The decision to entrust its management to this entity is based on economic factors and previous actions of the Fund. The Insurance Guarantee Fund protected the rights of the apartments’ buyers.

This way, the legislator avoids the costs associated with building a new system. He will use a well-developed organizational and informational structure that already exists.

Method of sharing information

According to the legislator’s plan, the Portal of Housing Prices will gather data from 3 following sources:

1. From the primary market:

Information concerning agreements for the purchase of residential units and single-family houses subject to the obligation of maintaining a housing escrow account, provided by professional entities obliged to report data to the Developer’s Guarantee Fund.

• Developer’s Guarantee Fund serves to protect funds deposited by buyers. It’s a guarantee of refund to a buyer in case of, e.g. their withdrawal from the agreement.
• Collected data allow verification of the proper fulfilment of reporting obligations by entities contributing to DGF.
• The data are to be transferred to the Portal of Housing Prices immediately. The time for this is 7 days from the date of submission to the Registry by the relevant entities. It also concerns submission through the ICT system.
• The information obligation deadline is 6 months from the effective date of the new developer Act’s provisions.
• Failure by developers to provide data subject to the disclosure obligation in a relevant register has consequences. It results in the suspension of the payment of funds from the housing escrow account.

2. From the primary market:

Information on agreements for the sale of residential properties not covered by the obligation to maintain a housing escrow account, shared by professional entities not subject to the obligation of reporting data to the DGF Records.

• Data is directly transmitted to the Portal of Housing Prices.
• This applies only to information about new transactions. Meaning, the ones carried out after the amended regulations come into effect.

3. From the secondary housing market:

Information provided by the Head of the National Tax Administration. They are based on data reported by notaries and resulting from notarial deeds.

The agreement between Insurance Guarantee Fund and the Head of the National Tax  Administration determines the rules, method, and deadline for data submission.

What data does the Portal of Housing Prices in Poland contain?

The legislator clearly defines the scope of information gathered in the Portal of Housing Prices. The most important include:

• Date of the agreement
• Identification data of the notarial deed. It will apply only to agreements on transferring the ownership of the property.
• Land register number, together with the property’s address.
• Type of property subject to the agreement (indicating an apartment or single-family house).
• Price of the appartment or a single-family house subject to the agreement.
• Usable area of the apartment or a single-family house subject to the agreement.
• Number of rooms in the apartment or a single-family house subject to the agreement.
• Floor of the building where the residential unit subject to the agreement is located.
• Number of floors in the building where the residential unit subject to the agreement is located
• Completion date of construction works on the building containing the residential unit or the single-family house covered by the agreement.
• The buyer’s PESEL number. If it is not assigned, the date of birth and the identity document with its type, series number, and issuing country will be necessary.

Purpose of maintaining data in the Portal of Housing Prices in Poland

According to the legislator, data collected in the Housing Price Portal serve 3 purposes:

1.  Statistical purpose. Such data enable designated entities to analyze the housing market. This will allow to perform other statistics tasks within this sector.

2.  Security purpose. A data-sharing security system has been developed to protect the interests and data of the parties to legal relations.

3. Informative purpose. A data collection mechanism (e.g. number of rooms, usable areas) has been developed, allowing for full information about the property. Importantly, the data collected in the Portal will be deleted at the latest on the date of termination of the operation.

Benefits of introducing the Portal of Housing Prices in Poland

Forming a registry with reliable data about properties available in the housing market brings several advantages:

• Transparency in the operations of the portal presenting transaction prices in the housing market. These are presented with regard to location, period, and selected type of property.
• Increased transparency of the real estate market. (Available transaction price statistics in the primary and secondary market).
• Access to reliable and current information about the real estate market.
• Protection of apartment buyers through a rational assessment of offer prices compared to real transactional market prices.
• Facilitating the decision to buy a property.
• Prevention of unnecessary duplication of information about the same property.
• Providing data on property prices from the developer’s market as crucial for disbursement from the Developer’s Guarantee Fund to buyers. This contributes to a more efficient estimation of potential DGF payouts and more effective verification of buyers’ payout requests.

The Portal of Housing Prices in Poland – summary

Gathering data on housing prices in Poland in a single registry will allow for a comprehensive and reliable assessment of the real estate market situation. This solution will protect the interests of buyers. It will also contribute to the efficiency and transparency of the entrepreneurs’ actions.

If you find the above topic interesting and want to know more about it, we invite you to cooperate with us. Our legal experts from Łódź and Warsaw are at your disposal. Contact us today and let us help you.