Poland proposes land title reform affecting 100,000 cooperative apartments

Cabinet review of draft bill UD335

The Polish Council of Ministers is scheduled to examine a draft act on Tuesday, 6 October 2026, starting at 12:00, aimed at regulating land built upon by housing cooperatives. Formally titled as an amendment to the Real Estate Management Act and related statutes, the bill carries the legislative tracking identifier UD335. Prepared by the Ministry of Development and Technology, the initiative addresses long-standing legal uncertainties affecting approximately 120 housing cooperatives across Poland. Government estimates indicate that the unresolved status of these plots directly impacts around 100,000 apartment right holders and their families. While the issue touches residential estates in multiple regions, the largest concentration of affected properties remains in Warsaw, where thousands of cooperative flats continue to exist in a legal void.

Origins of cooperative land disputes

The legal deadlock stems from historical construction practices under the Polish People's Republic (PRL) and the early years of the post-1989 economic transition. During those decades, cooperatives erected large multi-family estates on plots belonging to the state or local municipalities without finalizing formal property conveyances. Under statutory civil law provisions, perpetual usufruct arrangements prevented cooperatives from acquiring ownership through adverse possession or claiming title under Article 231 of the Civil Code. In the capital, resolution was further hindered by unsettled restitution claims arising under the post-war Bierut Decree. Many residents lived in these blocks for 40 or 50 years, regularly paying maintenance fees and financing renovations, unaware of the underlying title defects until attempting to sell a flat or secure a mortgage.

Administrative procedures and property mechanisms

To clear the backlog, draft bill UD335 equips designated housing cooperatives with a legal claim to obtain perpetual usufruct over land and receive the free transfer of building ownership. The measure establishes a formal administrative route to process these cooperative claims on a case-by-case basis, accounting for differences in parcel history, construction dates, and prior filings. The legislation also refines rules governing Warsaw plots with Bierut Decree encumbrances to facilitate final legal determinations. Furthermore, cooperative ownership rights will be integrated into the property resources of the State Treasury and local municipalities. Public entities will be permitted to revoke property allocations if land is used contrary to its intended purpose, while minister-level consent is required before state properties can be made available for an indefinite duration. The draft does not grant automatic ownership to individual occupants, who must wait until cooperative titles are resolved before establishing separate unit ownership.

Reinstating perpetual usufruct for housing

The draft legislation repeals the general ban on establishing perpetual usufruct for residential developments, returning to the statutory framework that operated before 1 January 2019. That earlier prohibition took effect when legislation converted existing residential perpetual usufruct rights into full property ownership. Under the reinstated mechanism, public landowners can grant long-term legal titles to entities delivering socially and economically significant housing projects while maintaining continuous oversight over land use. To support non-commercial housing, the bill defines preferential fee schedules for social housing programs as well as residential facilities built for university students and doctoral researchers. For newly established perpetual usufructs in these specific categories, the annual fee is set at 0.3% of the land price, with the initial fee capped at a maximum of 10% of property value.