Q&A • Real Estate

What are the real costs of buying a flat in Poland beyond the price?

On the secondary market a Polish buyer adds four items to the price: the PCC transfer tax, the notary fee with VAT, the deed copies and the court fee for the land-register entry. On a 600,000 zł flat that is about 14,500 zł, i.e. 2.42% of the price. The agency commission sits outside that figure, because Poland has no statutory commission rate.

Short answer

  1. On the secondary market the costs on top of the price are usually 2.4-2.8%: PCC at 2%, the notary fee with VAT, the deed copies and 200 zł for the ownership entry in the land register.
  2. PCC is 2% and the buyer pays it (art. 4 pkt 1). The base is the market value of the property (art. 6 ust. 1 pkt 1), which is not always the contract price.
  3. In a notarial sale the notary collects and remits the tax as payer (art. 10 ust. 2-3), so the buyer files no PCC-3 return.
  4. With the first-home exemption (art. 9 pkt 17) the total drops to roughly 0.4-0.6% of the price, because the largest item disappears.

Legal basis: three acts and nothing else

Every rate below comes from the PCC Act (consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 poz. 191), the Justice Minister's regulation on maximum notarial fees (Dz.U. 2024 poz. 1566, unchanged since 1 July 2021) and the Act on court costs in civil matters (consolidated text Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1228).

  • PCC on the secondary market: 2% - art. 7 ust. 1 pkt 1 lit. a.
  • Notarial fee for 60,000-1,000,000 zł: 1010 zł plus 0.4% of the excess over 60,000 zł - § 3. These are maxima (§ 1) and are negotiable.
  • Sale of a residential unit: half that rate - § 6 pkt 19. A deed securing a housing loan: a quarter - § 7.
  • Deed copies: 6 zł per started page, where a page means at least 25 lines - § 12 ust. 1 and 2.
  • Ownership entry in the land register: 200 zł - art. 42 ust. 1. Opening a new land register adds 100 zł - art. 44 ust. 1 pkt 1 in connection with art. 45 ust. 1.
  • Deleting a mortgage: 100 zł, i.e. half the entry fee - art. 46. The 150 zł figure exists in the Act, but for art. 42 ust. 3 and art. 43 cases.

Worked example: a 600,000 zł flat on the secondary market

The flat already has a land register, the buyer pays cash and the notary charges the maximum rate. The number of deed copies is an assumption, not a legal rule - here six copies of eight pages each.

  1. PCC: 2% of 600,000 zł = 12,000.00 zł.
  2. Notarial fee at half rate plus 23% VAT: 1,949.55 zł.
  3. Deed copies plus VAT, on the six-by-eight assumption: about 354.24 zł.
  4. Court fee for the ownership entry: 200.00 zł.
  5. Total: 14,503.79 zł, i.e. 2.42% of the price. PCC alone is about 83% of it. With a mortgage the share rises to roughly 2.45%; with the art. 9 pkt 17 exemption it falls to 2,503.79 zł, i.e. 0.42%.

When PCC is not 2%

Buying from a developer is excluded from PCC under art. 2 pkt 4 lit. a - the Act says the transaction is not subject to the tax, which is an exclusion rather than an exemption. The trap is lit. b of the same provision: it restores PCC where a party to the transaction is VAT-exempt and the object is real estate, so the mere presence of VAT does not mean there is no PCC.

  • First-home exemption, art. 9 pkt 17, in force since 31 August 2023: the buyer must be a natural person who held no residential unit on the day of sale or before it. The only exception is cumulative - a share of no more than 50% acquired by inheritance.
  • In judgment III FSK 281/25 of 7 April 2026 the Supreme Administrative Court allowed proportional relief for a co-buyer who meets the conditions personally.
  • The 6% rate under art. 7a applies to the sixth and each further residential unit in one or more buildings erected on a single plot. It sits on top of VAT and never combines with the 2% rate.
  • The condition that the units belong to one housing community, repeated in many summaries, does not appear in the Act at all.

Three mistakes that inflate the estimate

  • Applying the full § 3 rate to a residential unit. § 6 pkt 19 halves it. On a 600,000 zł flat the full rate overstates the notary by about 1,950 zł gross.
  • Charging 150 zł for deleting a mortgage. It is 100 zł under art. 46.
  • Treating the 7,500 zł cap as general. Above 2,000,000 zł the maximum fee is 10,000 zł; 7,500 zł applies only between persons in the first tax group.
  • Quoting a market commission as if it were a rate. Poland has no statutory brokerage commission - the figure comes solely from the brokerage contract.

How 4property helps the agency

A cost estimate is a conversation the agency repeats at every viewing. 4property keeps the numbers behind it consistent: the property card holds the asking price and the land-register data the estimate starts from, the CRM matches a buyer's total budget - price plus PCC, notary and court fees - against the portfolio instead of matching the asking price alone, and the brokerage contract records the agreed commission, its term and its renewal date in one register.

See also