Regulation Instead of Flexibility — The Real Estate Market in the New Reality

The master plan introduces greater predictability, but at the same time significantly limits the market’s investment flexibility.

Currently, only 33.8% of the country’s territory is covered by local zoning plans.
At the same time, as many as 94% of municipalities have at least one plan, but their coverage is fragmented.

The result? For years, the system has relied on land-use decisions and high investment flexibility.

Data from the OnGeo and XYZ analysis shows that:

• Only 0.8% of municipalities in Poland have already adopted a general plan,
• 8.2% of municipalities have not yet begun drafting a general plan,
• 55.6% of municipalities are in the initial stages of work,
• 35.3% of municipalities have made a draft general plan available.
• This means one thing:
  in the coming years, the availability of investment land will not depend on “possibilities,” but on strict planning regulations. Furthermore, out of nearly 2,500 municipalities, only 20 are in the final stages of the process.

In the report “Land Real Estate in Poland 2025/2026” (Hectares Management x Otodom), the general plan was called “the municipality’s new spatial constitution.”

What does this mean in practice?

• fewer random investment locations
• greater importance of market entry strategies
• a real risk of certain plots of land being “excluded” from development
• Nationwide, only 12% of counties are areas where all municipalities have begun work on master plans. At the local level, the reform plays out in two extreme scenarios—total mobilization or a complete lack of action. The biggest barriers preventing the implementation of general plans are: limited administrative capacity, the complexity of procedures, and legislative instability.

How to conduct business in an increasingly regulated environment? This question will be at the center of the discussion during the Polish Real Estate Forum, in the panel “A Tight Regulatory Corset.”