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Krakow is the most attractive city to live in
Poland
and the country's second biggest market for real estate.
For the time being foreigners may legally buy Krakow
apartments or building plots up to 0.4 hectare (i.e. about
an acre) without much red tape as long as they pledge that
it will be their fixed abode and they do not own other
domicile in Poland. Plus aliens can freely inherit any
property. Otherwise acquisition of real estate by an alien
requires authorization from the Ministry of Internal
Affairs, usually easy to get.
The prices of new Krakow flats start at an equivalent of euro
1,500 or so per square meter. A three-bedroom house may cost
anything between euro 100,000–500,000. Also one can purchase
a tenement house in the downtown for euro several millions.
Property tax in Krakow for
residential property amounts to as little as 0.54
zloty
per square meter yearly.
See more information on the market for real estate in Krakow
Housing in the 20th-century or older tenement buildings
largely exceeds modern condominiums in Krakow.
Apartments in the central Old Town
historic district are most prized, followed by quality
flats in the newly fashionable
Kazimierz area. And downmarket one finds apartment blocks
of prefabricated concrete from the 1960s, the 1970s, and the
1980s, notably those in vast peripheral residential areas
that resemble housing projects in the USA and their Western
European counterparts. Otherwise the Krakow market for
residential property consists mostly of flats in the
20th-century downtown tenement houses and apartments in
housing estates built in the city over the last 20 years.
See more about flats and other residential property in
Krakow
Office space in modern buildings in Krakow costs from eight
euros per square meter monthly at the lower end of the
market to euro 16 per sq. m. a month in the downtown top
class-A office block, inclusive of service charges.
And the overall vacancy rate hovers around 6.3 percent.
Mercantile facilities at Krakow’s Old Town’s busiest
street, Florianska, and at the city’s central
Rynek Glowny square rank among Poland’s priciest. On the
other hand shopping
centers
have mushroomed in Krakow since the mid-1990s, with
monthly rents averaging euro 30 per square meter (plus
service charges to the tune of about 3.5 euro per sq. meter)
even as vacancies are scarce.
Find more info about commercial property in Krakow
Krakow isn't now a seller’s market for real property
any longer. Since demand and supply for
flats
have balanced out, potential buyers are more choosy.
A licensed real estate agent should take care of all legal
matters. And the transaction needs to be completed with the
help of the local notary public to be valid. The notary
keeps the deed (called akt notarialny) whereas both
the buyer and the seller get certified copies.
The seller, Polish and alien alike, should pay Poland’s
income tax
on the proceeds from selling property in Krakow though
there are exceptions.
See more advice on selling real property in Krakow
It's good to remember that the country's land registry,
Polish ksiegi wieczyste, provides information about real
property crucial for the buyer - from names of the actual
owners to mortgages to restrictions. The information is
available online at at http://ekw.ms.gov.pl - alas in Polish
only.
Apart from the full ownership of real
estate also popular in Poland is the perpetual lease
- so called dzierzawa wieczysta - as well as a limited
ownership of flats within housing cooperatives, all of them
transferable.
In order to be
effective, any transfer of the
ownership of real property
must be completed at the office of a local notary public who
also collects the deed tax (stamp duty) when applicable and
the court fee for an entry in the land register. Also, the
notary is responsible for placing the correct entry in the
land register.
In Krakow
people either employ a real estate agent to sell their
property or resort to classified advertisements in local
newspapers and/or on the Internet.
See more advice on buying real estate in Krakow
List of realtors active in Krakow, their address and contact
information.
Go to the list of real estate agents in Krakow
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