The passing of the Act on housing co-operatives (name in Polish, in English this term could correspond to housing construction groups and to some extent to cohousing projects known in Denmark or in Germany) will not cause all obstacles to the development of this form of housing in Poland to cease to exist. However, the legal regulations would be of great help to all those who are thinking of building a multi-family house for themselves.

It is therefore worth following the legislative process. The works are coordinated by the Minister of Development, Labour and Technology and their progress can be observed on the website of the Government Legislation Centre.

The bill stipulates that the rules of cooperation between members of a co-operative may be laid down in a housing co-operative agreement or a civil partnership agreement signed before a notary public. Upon completion, each member becomes the owner of a flat. Sample agreements were prepared by the city of Wrocław during the development of the Nowe Żerniki housing estate. You can find them on the website of the Wrocław housing co-operatives.

The cooperatives could be assisted by the local authorities, if they decided to sell the city plots in tenders addressed to the members of the cooperatives and the new housing associations. Real estate developers could not participate in such tenders.

In addition, the municipality could agree to reduce the price of the land by the price or rental costs of the premises that the cooperative would like to sell or rent to the municipality. The municipality could also spread the price of the property in instalments and give the owner a discount after paying 2/3 of the price falling to him.

The passing of the law would also be important for the financing of investments. At the moment banks, when discussing a possible loan, do not know what housing co-operatives are (there is no legal definition of it) and do not have financial products intended for them. They may consider the financing of construction sites run by cooperatives too risky.

As you can see, the prospect of legislation is good news for all those for whom the development of cooperative housing is important.