What’s changing in Polish housing and real estate law in 2026?

The key point is this: there is no single “big housing act” in 2026, but there are several changes that will directly affect homeowners, landlords, and investors. Below is a practical overview based on specific legal acts and official announcements.

1. Short-term rentals under full control (Airbnb, Booking, etc.)

What’s happening?

In 2026, EU Regulation 2024/1028 on collecting and sharing data on short-term rentals starts to apply in practice. Under it, Poland must implement a short-term rental registration system by 20 May 2026.

Industry and legal media already describe the expected consequences: mandatory registration, a property identification number, reporting obligations, and potential penalties for non-compliance.

What does this mean for owners?

If you rent out an apartment per night:

• you will likely need to:
  • register the property in a national register,
  • obtain an identification number and include it in every listing (including platforms),
  • keep more formal documentation (rules, a responsible contact person, information for the municipality / building community).
• platforms like Airbnb/Booking may not publish listings without a valid ID number — the end of “unregistered” short-term rental.
• it will be easier to link a specific unit to a specific owner, which increases the risk of tax audits.

In addition, public and media discussions suggest that repeated, profit-driven short-term rentals may increasingly be treated as business activity rather than “private rental” — meaning full registration and reporting obligations.

Where does Estify fit in?

For short-term rental owners, the key will be to calculate whether the business still makes sense after added costs (registration, compliance, taxes, extra requirements).

Estify helps as:

• a time-saving tool that reduces stress,
• a fast, realistic property valuation report (what your apartment is worth today),
• a reference point for the decision: “Sell and reinvest elsewhere — or keep it for rental?”

2. New fire-safety requirements (especially for short-term rentals)

In 2026, parts of updated fire safety regulations begin to take effect.

The most important change for apartments and rentals:

• from 30 June 2026: mandatory installation of standalone smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in units used for hotel-like services and in units used for short-term rental.

Long-term plans (from 2030) expand this further, but in 2026 the focus is mainly on:

• short-term rental units,
• properties formally used for hospitality services.

Non-compliance can lead to:

• issues during inspections,
• higher insurance risk (including refusal of payout after an incident),
• fines or administrative penalties.

3. Portal DOM and free transaction price data (RCN): real prices become public

This is not classic “housing law,” but it directly impacts the market — sellers, buyers, and flippers included.

What has been adopted?

Changes have been passed to create:

• Portal DOM (Data Portal on Housing Transactions), intended to show real purchase prices paid by buyers.
• Amendments to geodetic regulations aiming to make RCN (Real Estate Price Register) access free, with a planned launch in spring 2026, alongside Portal DOM.

What does this mean for the market?

Buyers and sellers will be able to:

• see real transaction prices (averages/medians) for apartments by room count, size, location, and market type (primary/secondary),
• spot overpriced developer offers and unrealistic private listings more easily.

This will likely reduce:

• listings priced “just in case someone pays,”
• flipping strategies based mainly on buyers’ lack of access to real transaction data.

How can Estify use it?

Portal DOM and free RCN data can become additional benchmark sources for Estify. Estify can combine transaction and listing prices with many other factors affecting value — so users get a valuation that goes beyond simple city-wide averages.

4. Short-term rental: register, penalties, and local limits

Beyond the EU regulation itself, national implementing rules are expected. These may:

• require registration for rentals shorter than 30 days,
• allow municipalities or building communities to limit short-term rentals in a building or district,
• introduce financial penalties for missing registration or false reporting.

This direction comes directly from:

• the EU regulation text,
• official ministry positions,
• and public reporting on the Polish implementation project.

5. Portal DOM vs Estify: how they complement each other

A fair question: if Portal DOM and free RCN exist, why use Estify?

The difference is simple:

• Portal DOM / RCN mostly provide statistics: averages, medians, and aggregated data for larger areas, without property-specific features.
• Estify uses DOM/RCN as a benchmark (one input among many), then adds dozens of property-level factors (floor, view, condition, layout, standard, surroundings) to generate a personalized valuation report.

Estify is much more than a price portal. It considers noise levels, safety standards, flood risk, land register situation, zoning plans — and more. It saves time and replaces complex manual analysis with one clear report.

6. What about the “housing relief” tax change in 2026?

This question comes up often, because much of 2025 media coverage suggested: “housing relief ends for investors from 2026.”

Reality is more complex:

• The Ministry of Finance prepared a major PIT/CIT reform package (UD116), including plans to limit housing relief mainly to people meeting strict “own housing needs” criteria.
• Many sources discussed 1 January 2026 as the start date.
• But the project was not adopted early enough, and in practice major unfavorable annual tax changes must be published well in advance.

Conclusion (end of 2025 perspective):

• in 2026, housing relief still applies under the current rules,
• changes could return from 2027 at the earliest, if the proposal comes back in a revised form.

This matters for:

• people selling within 5 years and planning to reinvest in housing,
• flippers, because the policy direction is clearly anti-speculative — even if delayed.

7. Possible return of perpetual usufruct for housing (draft stage)

One more housing-specific topic, still at the draft stage:

• a government project aims to increase access to land for housing, including restoring the option to establish perpetual usufruct for housing purposes (especially for TBS, SIM, cooperatives, municipalities),
• some media discuss a potential return “from 2026,” with a preferential annual fee (e.g., ~0.3% of land value),
• at the moment this remains a proposal, planned for government work in early 2026 — so the timing is not guaranteed.

Summary: what really changes in 2026?

For owners and residential investors in Poland, the key themes in 2026 are:

Short-term rental

• registration, property IDs, data reporting, higher risk of being treated as business activity.

Fire safety

• mandatory smoke/CO detectors for short-term rental / hospitality-type units.

Price transparency

• Portal DOM and free access to real transaction data (RCN), making market pricing clearer for everyone.

Housing relief

• no confirmed change from 1 January 2026; 2026 still follows current rules, but reform direction remains anti-speculative.

Perpetual usufruct (draft)

• possible return for housing purposes, but still not certain.

Against this background, Estify connects regulation with real-life decisions — taking new rules and local constraints and translating them into a clear, numbers-based property valuation before sale, rental, or investment.