You rent in Warsaw and have two offers: a ready flat, already completed, with the keys in about two months, or a cheaper off-plan flat (one still under construction) that will take another year and a half, with rent to pay the whole time. The off-plan flat only pays off if the price gap is bigger than the rent for the extra months of waiting, with a margin for delay. At the average rent for a two-room flat of 40–59 m² in Warsaw, PLN 3,897 a month (May 2026 data, Bankier.pl report based on Otodom Analytics, 22 June 2026), 16 extra months of rent cost PLN 62,352. For a 50 m² flat, the off-plan one has to be about PLN 1,247 cheaper per square metre just to break even (our calculation, as of October 2026).
Below you will find the formula, a table for different waiting times, what shifts the result either way, and what changes when you buy as a foreigner: a possible permit, Polish paperwork and payments from abroad. The law is stated as of October 2026. The Developer Act is the Act of 20 May 2021 on the protection of the rights of buyers of a flat or a single-family house and on the Developer Guarantee Fund (consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2026, item 880).
How do you work out the cost of waiting for an off-plan flat?
What counts is not the whole time until you get the keys but the difference between the two offers. You wait for a completed flat too: for the notarial deed, the handover and, if you borrow, the bank. Fitting out a flat sold in shell condition (stan deweloperski) takes about the same time in both cases, so leave it out.
Formula:
cost of waiting = your monthly rent × (months to keys off-plan − months to keys for the ready flat)
Compare the result with the price gap between the whole units, including a parking space or storage room if they cost extra, not with the gap in price per square metre. Convert it to a price per square metre only at the end, to compare offers more easily.
The table uses the average rent of PLN 3,897 a month for two rooms of 40–59 m² in Warsaw (May 2026 data, Bankier.pl report based on Otodom Analytics, 22 June 2026). Put your own rent in its place. All amounts are our calculation, as of October 2026.
Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.
| Extra months of rent | Rent paid | How much cheaper per m² for 50 m² | Share of the sample flat’s price* |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | PLN 46,764 | approx. PLN 935 | 5.6% |
| 16 (e.g. 18 months off-plan vs 2 months for the ready flat) | PLN 62,352 | approx. PLN 1,247 | 7.4% |
| 18 | PLN 70,146 | approx. PLN 1,403 | 8.4% |
| 20 (16 months plus a delay of about 4 months) | PLN 77,940 | approx. PLN 1,559 | 9.3% |
| 24 | PLN 93,528 | approx. PLN 1,871 | 11.1% |
* Sample flat: 50 m² × PLN 16,783/m² = PLN 839,150. PLN 16,783/m² is the average transaction price for new builds in Warsaw in Q2 2026 according to the National Bank of Poland (NBP, BaRN database). It is only a reference point; what matters is the price of your two offers.
How to read the table: if the off-plan flat is PLN 40,000 cheaper and the difference in waiting is 16 months, you lose about PLN 22,000 on rent alone. The ready flat comes out cheaper, even though its list price is higher.
For scale: according to Statistics Poland (GUS, report published 30 June 2026), multi-family buildings in Poland completed in 2025 took on average 24.8 months from the start of construction to completion. That is a national average, not the time from signing to handover, so work with the date in your developer agreement and test the 20- and 24-month rows as well.
Is an off-plan flat cheaper than a ready one in Warsaw?
On average, no, and that surprises many buyers. According to BIG DATA RynekPierwotny.pl (August 2026), completed flats in Warsaw were offered at an average of PLN 19,700/m², and flats due for completion in two years or more at PLN 26,200/m². Ready flats were therefore on average 24.8% cheaper than those you have to wait a long time for.
Do not conclude that the same flat costs more off-plan. The averages compare different locations, standards and sizes. Projects with a distant completion date may be in other districts and in a different segment from the units left unsold in finished buildings. So:
- compare flats in the same area, of similar size and standard, ideally in the same development if the developer is selling later phases;
- take prices from the developer’s price list. Under the law as of October 2026, the developer must publish on its website the price per m² and the price of each unit including VAT, along with a dated history of price changes (Article 19a of the Developer Act);
- look at both options side by side: you can search Warsaw new builds by completion date and compare ready and later flats in one district.
There is plenty to choose from. According to CBRE and Tabelaofert.pl, at the end of June 2026 Warsaw had 3,344 completed, unsold new-build flats, or 20.5% of the offer. According to BIG DATA RynekPierwotny.pl, in August 2026 completed flats made up about 20% of the Warsaw offer (about 3,600 units). Nor are they left without buyers: according to the Tabelaofert.pl barometer (April 2026 data), completed flats accounted for almost 32% of sales across the seven markets it covers.
What else does waiting cost, besides rent?
Payments during construction. Under a developer agreement (umowa deweloperska), you pay into an escrow account (mieszkaniowy rachunek powierniczy) as construction progresses, after each stage is completed (Article 8(1)–(3)). The payment schedule (harmonogram) has at least four stages, and each stage is 10–25% of the total costs of the project, not of your flat’s price (Article 24(2)). If you pay cash, you pay rent and the developer’s instalments at the same time throughout construction.
Financing. If you borrow, ask a mortgage adviser (doradca kredytowy) how the bank pays out a loan for a flat under construction and when your repayments start. That decides whether, for part of the time, you pay both an instalment and rent. Add those months to the table.
Delay. The date in the agreement is a deadline, not a moving-in date. If the developer does not transfer ownership to you on time, you set an additional deadline of 120 days. Only when that is missed may you withdraw from the agreement, and you keep your claim to the contractual penalty for the delay (Article 43(1)(6) and (3), law as of October 2026). That is why the table has a row with a margin of about four months.
The contractual penalty against your rent. The developer agreement states the interest and contractual penalties, if the parties provided for them (Article 35(1)(14)). Compare the penalty for a month of delay with your rent. If the penalty is lower, you pay the difference yourself for every month of delay.
Your lease. Check your notice period and whether you can extend the lease by a few months. If completion slips, a rigid one-year lease can cost more than the delay itself.
What do you gain by waiting for an off-plan flat?
Waiting has advantages too, and they are worth pricing before you rule the off-plan flat out.
Protection of your payments. Under a developer agreement, your money goes into an escrow account. From a closed account, the bank releases it to the developer only after the deed transferring ownership (Article 15); from an open account, stage by stage (Article 16). Payments into an open account are protected by the Developer Guarantee Fund (Deweloperski Fundusz Gwarancyjny, DFG) in the cases listed in Article 48(1). The developer pays the DFG contribution: 0.45% for an open account and 0.1% for a closed one (regulation in Journal of Laws 2022, item 1341, as of October 2026).
Spreading payments over time. Under a developer agreement, you do not pay the whole price at once, only the stages in the schedule. A completed flat bought straight under a sale agreement has no such schedule.
The price fixed in the agreement. Check the information prospectus (prospekt informacyjny) and the draft agreement for whether, and on what terms, the price can be indexed (waloryzacja). A government draft amendment to the Developer Act (UD361, published on the Government Legislation Centre website on 11 May 2026) would ban price indexation, but as of 7 October 2026 it had not been submitted to the Sejm. It is a draft, not law in force.
VAT makes no difference today. As of 7 October 2026, the sale of a flat of up to 150 m² is taxed at 8% VAT, whether or not the building is finished (Article 41(2) and (12)–(12c) and Article 146ef of the VAT Act, consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2026, item 1263). Under Article 146ef, the end of the period of the reduced rates is announced by the Minister of Finance by 31 October of a given year; no such announcement had been published by 5 October 2026. Check the rate again before you sign.
Ready in two months: what decides when you get the keys?
A developer may sell a completed flat straight under a sale agreement (Article 3 of the Developer Act). In that case only some of the Act’s provisions apply, including those on reservation, the reservation fee and inspection (Articles 29–32, Article 34(1)(1)–(2) and Article 41(1)–(3)). The rules on the escrow account and the DFG do not. Instead, you see the finished flat and inspect it before the deed. The developer is liable under the warranty (rękojmia) for defects of the property for five years, for a ready and an off-plan flat alike (Article 568 § 1 of the Civil Code, consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2026, item 795).
The date of the keys depends mainly on these things:
- The bank’s decision, if you borrow. The bank delivers it on the 21st day after your application, or earlier only with your consent, and the decision binds the bank for at least 14 days (Article 14(2) and (6) of the Mortgage Credit Act, consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2025, item 720).
- The length of the reservation. A reservation agreement is made for a fixed period, and if you borrow, that period must allow for the bank’s decision (Article 31). The reservation fee may not exceed 1% of the price (Article 32(2)). You get it back if the bank refuses the loan because of a negative creditworthiness assessment (Article 34(1)(1)). More in our guide on what a reservation agreement can cost you if you walk away.
- Handover and the date of the deed, which you agree with the developer, the notary and, if you borrow, the bank.
- A permit, if you need one as a foreign buyer (see the next section). It can add months.
“Two months” is a plan, not a certainty. Give notice on your lease only once you have the date of the deed and of the handover in writing.
What changes the sums when you buy as a foreigner?
A permit and the timeline. You need no permit for the flat itself, ready or off-plan. A self-contained flat (samodzielny lokal mieszkalny) outside the border zone can be bought without a permit from the Ministry of the Interior and Administration (MSWiA), whatever your citizenship (Article 8(1)(1) and 8(3) of the Act on the Acquisition of Real Estate by Foreigners, consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2017, item 2278). Warsaw is not in the border zone. The same goes for a garage unit linked to your housing needs (Article 8(1)(1a)) and for the share in the land and common parts that comes with the flat.
According to MSWiA, however, a share in a separate property sold with the flat, such as an access road or part of a housing estate, does need a permit, unless you are exempt. Among those exempt are EEA and Swiss citizens (Article 8(2)) and people who have lived in Poland for at least five years since being granted a permanent residence permit or an EU long-term resident permit (Article 8(1)(2)). A permit means PLN 1,570 in stamp duty and a wait: the statutory deadline for a particularly complex case is two months (Article 35 § 3 of the Code of Administrative Procedure), and MSWiA says 2–4 months or longer in practice. A purchase made without a required permit is invalid (Article 6(1)).
For your sums: if a “ready in two months” flat comes with such a share, the permit alone can add 2–4 months of rent, PLN 7,794 to PLN 15,588 at the average rent above (our calculation, as of October 2026). Ask about separate shares before you reserve. A permit is valid for two years and a promise of a permit (promesa) for one year (Articles 3(2) and 3d(2)), so with an off-plan purchase, ask the notary for which deed you will need it.
Polish paperwork, once or twice. The Developer Act says nothing about the language of the prospectus or the agreement, so it gives you no right to a translation. A consumer contract can be made in your language if you ask for it, know that language, are not a Polish citizen and were told in advance that you may have a Polish version (Article 8(1b) of the Polish Language Act, consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2026, item 81). The notarial deed is in Polish. If you do not know Polish and no translation is attached, the notary translates it, personally or with a sworn translator (tłumacz przysięgły), and must make sure you understand its content and meaning (Articles 2 § 3, 87 § 1(1) and 94 § 1 of the Law on Notaries, consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2026, item 614).
Off-plan means two notarial deeds, often far apart: the developer agreement now and the transfer of ownership after completion (Article 40(1) of the Developer Act; Article 158 of the Civil Code). That is two appointments with interpretation. If you may be abroad for the second one, a power of attorney must also be made as a notarial deed (Article 99 § 1 of the Civil Code); agree its form with the Polish notary in advance. A completed flat sold under a sale agreement needs one deed.
Payments from abroad. The notary and the real estate agent must identify you and, where circumstances justify it, check the source of your funds (Article 34(1) of the AML Act, consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2025, item 644). Banks report transfers above €15,000, including those from abroad, to the General Inspector of Financial Information (Article 72). Off-plan, you pay in several stages over the whole construction period, so keep the paper trail for each transfer.
Mortgage as a foreigner. Ask a mortgage adviser (doradca kredytowy) before you reserve.
Residence. Buying a flat does not give you a residence permit: the Act on Foreigners (consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2025, item 1079) has no such ground. For an EU long-term resident application, you need a current legal title to your home, and a rental agreement counts as well as a flat you own (Article 219a(1), applied since 27 April 2026). Renting while you wait does not hold that application up.
Questions to ask before you choose
- How much is my rent, and how many more months will I pay it with the off-plan flat?
- What is the price gap between the whole units, including a parking space and a storage room?
- What transfer-of-ownership date is in the draft agreement, and what is the contractual penalty for delay? See how to check whether a Warsaw build will finish on time.
- Does the agreement allow price indexation?
- Is the escrow account open or closed?
- Is the completed flat sold under a developer agreement or straight under a sale agreement?
- Does either flat come with a share in a separate property, such as an access road, that would need an MSWiA permit?
- Will I be in Poland for every notarial deed, and in what language will each one be conducted?
- How long will fitting out take, and what will it cost? This applies to both offers if both are in shell condition.
If you are still undecided between a new build and a resale flat, start with new build or resale: the full comparison for expats.
This text is for information only and is not legal advice. Legal position as of October 2026.
FAQ
Is an off-plan flat cheaper than a ready one in Warsaw?
On average, no. According to BIG DATA RynekPierwotny.pl (August 2026), completed new-build flats in Warsaw were offered at an average of PLN 19,700/m², and flats due for completion in two years or more at PLN 26,200/m². These averages mix locations and standards, so compare specific flats in the same area, not the averages.
How much does it cost to keep renting while an off-plan flat is built?
Your monthly rent times the number of extra months you wait. At the average rent for a two-room flat of 40–59 m² in Warsaw, PLN 3,897 a month (May 2026 data, Bankier.pl report based on Otodom Analytics, 22 June 2026), 18 months of rent come to PLN 70,146 and 16 extra months to PLN 62,352 (our calculation, as of October 2026).
What can I do if the developer hands over the flat late?
Under Polish law as of October 2026, if ownership is not transferred to you on time, you set the developer an additional 120-day deadline. If that is missed, you may withdraw from the developer agreement and keep your claim to the contractual penalty for the delay (Article 43(1)(6) and (3) of the Developer Act, Journal of Laws 2026, item 880). Every month of delay is another month of rent.
Do I need a permit to buy a ready flat in Warsaw as a non-EU citizen?
Not for the flat itself, ready or off-plan. A self-contained flat outside the border zone needs no permit from the Ministry of the Interior and Administration (MSWiA), and Warsaw is not in the border zone (Article 8(1)(1) and 8(3) of the Act on the Acquisition of Real Estate by Foreigners, as of October 2026). A share in a separate property sold with the flat, such as an access road, does need one unless you are exempt; according to MSWiA, that takes 2–4 months or longer in practice.
Is my money protected if I buy a completed flat?
Not in the same way. If the developer sells a completed flat straight under a sale agreement (Article 3 of the Developer Act), the rules on the escrow account and the Developer Guarantee Fund do not apply. Instead, you see the finished flat and inspect it before the deed. The five-year warranty for defects of the property applies in both cases (Article 568 § 1 of the Civil Code, as of October 2026).
Comparing a ready flat with an off-plan one? Write to us before your first visit to the developer’s sales office (biuro sprzedaży), so that we can register you there as our client. We will go through the prospectus and the draft agreement with you, in English or in any of the other languages we work in (seven in all), point out what to ask the developer or a lawyer, and go to the sales office together. As a buyer of a new-build flat, you pay us no fee.
Jawno · Vladyslav Moroz, real estate agent (pośrednik w obrocie nieruchomościami), sole trader with OC liability insurance · +48 692 649 839 · infojawno@gmail.com