Real-estate purchase by foreigners following Poland’s accession to the European Union

Abstract

The presented article shows the dimension and structure of changes in real-estate sales to foreigners in Poland between years 2004–2006. Transaction number analysis including foreigners and areas of properties purchased by them indicates their enormous growth within but three years following the accession. The growth is the most visible in case of housing and letting properties, particularly retail outlets. As regards scale evaluation of agricultural and forest real estate transactions in comparison with the pre-accession period, worries of Poland’s integration with the European Union did not come true and land was not sold on a massive scale, though land sale growth was serious and amounted to 79% between years 2004–2006. The result of strengthened transactions on the property market following Poland’s accession to the European Union is growth of direct foreign investments, provision of new jobs, introduction of new management and service standards.