Revolution in rental housing. There will be a ban or restriction on the purchase of some apartments

• Work on a thorough amendment to the Act on Social Forms of Housing Development and certain other acts is accelerating.
• At Monday's (7 July) joint session of the Sejm's infrastructure and local government committees, the first readings of the government and parliamentary draft amendments to this regulation will be held.
• Both projects envisage introducing changes to as many as 13 acts.
• One of the more revolutionary changes is the total ban on the purchase of apartments built under the current social rental housing (SBC) program, proposed by Left-wing MPs.
• The government bill does not go that far and only provides for a limitation on the scale of purchase of rental premises.

On Monday, July 7, the joint parliamentary committees: infrastructure and local government and regional policy have scheduled a joint session. It will hold the first readings of both the government and the parliamentary draft amendment to the act on social forms of housing development and certain other acts.

Both projects envisage major changes to as many as 13 acts, such as :

• Act on Social Forms of Housing Development;
• Real Estate Management Act;
• Act on Housing Cooperatives;
• Act on Planning and Development and Spatial Planning;
• Act on financial support for certain housing projects;
• Identity Cards Act;
• Act on the Military Property Agency;
• Act amending the Act on certain forms of supporting housing construction and certain other acts;
• the act amending the act on financial support for the creation of social housing, sheltered housing, shelters and homes for the homeless, the act on the protection of tenants’ rights, and the municipal housing resources;
• Act on facilitating the preparation and implementation of housing investments and accompanying investments;
• Act amending certain acts supporting the improvement of housing conditions;
• Act on state aid for saving for housing purposes;
• Act amending the Act on spatial planning and development and certain other acts.

In the project submitted on 7 February 2025, a group of Left MPs proposed, among other things, changes to the social rental housing (SBC) programme.

- This program is implemented by SIM/TBS. It is a strong alternative to ownership in the housing sector. SBC is another government housing program aimed at building residential premises for rent for people excluded from the possibility of satisfying their housing needs on the market and at the same time deprived of support in functioning housing support programs - remind the authors of the parliamentary draft amendment.

They emphasize that SBC "is a continuation of the government's social rental housing program, which was also based on support provided from public funds."

The most important source of this support were preferential loans granted from the resources of the National Housing Fund (KFM) . The loans were initially granted up to 50%, and then 70% of the investment costs).

In terms of changes to the SBC program, the Left MPs propose in the submitted bill, among other things, to restore the provisions on the complete ban on separating into ownership premises built under the SBC program . To this end, the MPs propose:

• repeal of section 4 in chapter 4aa of the Act on Social Forms, i.e. institutional lease agreements with acquisition of ownership taking into account the settlement of participation;
• repealing chapter 4b of the Act on social forms, i.e. the separation of ownership of residential premises built for rental using a loan granted by the Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego.

In addition, the Left proposes in its draft amendment:

• increasing the participation of the social factor in the supervision of TBS/SIM by introducing a change obliging the commune or communes in which the TBS/SIM operates to introduce their representatives to the supervisory board of companies, in the number specified in the agreement or the statute of the TBS/SIM, but not less than one;
• extension by two years of the current SBC program , which according to the applicable regulations ends in 2024, with a simultaneous increase in the SBC program budget from PLN 4.5 billion to PLN 6.9 billion (BGK funds).

The proposed increase in the SBC programme budget by BGK must be accompanied by an increase in budget expenditure on subsidising preferential interest rates.

- we read in the justification of the parliamentary project.

The government project regarding the social rental housing (SBC) programme envisages, among others:

• introducing a restriction on the purchase of apartments built with the participation of repayable financing , by allowing ownership transformations only after 25 years from the date of commissioning of the residential premises and after repayment of the loan taken out by SIM/TBS for its construction (while maintaining the acquired rights of current tenants of residential premises);
• increasing the participation of the social factor in the supervision of existing SIM/TBS , by introducing a change giving the commune or communes in whose area the SIM/TBS operates the right to introduce their representatives to the supervisory board of companies.

The government also proposes to extend the current SB C programme by 1 year , which according to the applicable regulations ends in 2025, while increasing the SBC programme budget from PLN 4.5 billion to PLN 6.9 billion (BGK funds).

- The proposed increase in the SBC programme budget by BGK must be accompanied by an increase in budget expenditure on subsidies for preferential interest rates - we read in the justification of the government project.