This is the last article in the series entitled "Tuesday Mornings for the Construction Industry" for 2025. As in previous years, we decided to summarize and highlight the issues that impacted the real estate market in the past year. In our opinion, 2025 will be remembered in real estate law as a period of further amendments to the Act on the Protection of the Rights of Purchasers of Residential Premises or Single-Family Homes and the Developer Guarantee Fund ("Development Act").
In 2025, the legislature adopted five amendments to this act, four of which are already in force. This year was therefore a time for developers to adapt their documentation, sales procedures, and information systems to the growing statutory obligations . The same will be true in early 2026.
Price transparency and new information obligations
One of the key amendments was the introduction of mandatory price transparency , which included publishing current and historical prices of apartments on developers' websites and transmitting data to public systems. This change increased the transparency of the primary market, but also presented developers with practical challenges related to data updating, consistency of marketing communications, and the risk of sanctions for errors or inaccuracies.
Contributions to the Developer Guarantee Fund
Another significant practical change was the extension of the obligation to pay contributions to the Development Fund (DFG) to all development and commitment agreements under Article 2 of the Development Act concluded after the amendment entered into force . This obligation was introduced regardless of the commencement date of the development project or investment task. This change required updating the templates for development and commitment agreements and close cooperation with banks maintaining residential escrow accounts (although bank practices varied).
Warranty
In September 2025, a new Article 41a of the Development Act came into force, introducing developer liability for physical and legal defects in real estate under development agreements and binding contracts. Therefore, there is no longer any doubt that the warranty provisions of the Civil Code will apply accordingly in such cases.
DOM Portal – continuation of “price transparency”
The trend towards transparency continued with the adoption of regulations creating the Housing Trading Data Portal (DOM Portal) , which will be operated by the Insurance Guarantee Fund. This portal will collect data on transactions on the primary and secondary markets, and the statistical portion will be made publicly available, while maintaining anonymity thresholds. Although the portal will not actually begin operating until April 2027, the direction of regulation of the residential real estate market has already been decided.
Usable area – method of calculating the price
The latest amendment to the Development Act was passed by the Sejm and Senate in December and submitted for signature to the President of the Republic of Poland on December 19, 2025. This amendment, if signed by the President, will introduce rules for determining prices by reference to the usable floor area of residential units and single-family homes, which has significant practical implications for both developers and buyers . Pursuant to the new Article 5a of the Development Act, in agreements regulated by this Act, including development agreements, sales agreements, and reservation agreements, the price of a residential unit or single-family home will have to be determined as the product of the usable floor area (expressed in m²) and the price per m² of that floor area . It is crucial to establish that the usable floor area should be determined in accordance with the Polish Standard for the Determination and Calculation of Area and Volume Indicators in Construction, in effect on the date of submitting an application for a building permit or filing a construction notification for a given unit or home.
This regulation means that developers must maintain particular consistency between design, administrative and contractual documentation, which in practice means reviewing the document templates used and introducing changes that will ensure compliance with the amended regulations.
The amendment is still awaiting the President's signature, but it will enter into force quickly, within 30 days of its publication in the Journal of Laws, likely in early February 2026. Importantly, it will also apply to development projects or ongoing investment projects. If you require assistance in assessing the impact of this amendment or updating documents, please contact our office.
In summary , 2025 was a year of increasing responsibilities for developers investing in the residential market, resulting from statutory changes aimed at clarifying regulations and increasing transparency . The changes to the Developer Act set a new standard of operation, particularly in terms of access to housing prices, the full effects of which will become apparent in the coming years.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Legal status as of December 30, 2025.
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