On September 17, 2024, a Draft of an Act Amending the Protection of the Rights of the Purchasers of Residential Premises or Single-Family Houses Act and the Developer Guarantee Fund Act and Certain Other Acts, dated September 9, 2024 (hereinafter referred to as “the Draft”) was published on the Government Legislation Center’s website.[1]

Public and free access to information concerning the housing market for everyone is to be available in 2 years

Even though the announcement of the Draft took place only several months ago, one of its elements has already become quite famous — an introduction of a new institution, a public, free online Housing Trading Data Portal, called the “DOM Portal.” Although the proposed changes are to enter into force only 20 months after the announcement of the act (that is at least what the Draft assumes)[2] and the DOM Portal itself will mostly likely reach its basic functionality only after this period, it is already worth taking a closer look at the new tool that the state intends to hand to the citizens.

As the Ministry of Development and Technology indicated, the Insurance Guarantee Fund (hereinafter referred to as the “IGF”) will run theDOM Portal. The IGF already runs another tool for protecting apartment purchasers—the Developer Guarantee Fund Register. The IGF has already developed automatic communication channels with professional entities (such as developers or banks) reporting transaction data. It is assumed that expanding the scope of data already collected for this Register will be faster and cheaper to implement than building a new system from scratch.[3]

The DOM Portal is supposed to be a nationwide, publicly accessible platform—it is to be consistently updated, considering transactions on both the primary and secondary markets. Everyone, free of charge and without demonstrating a factual or legal interest, will have access to transaction information regarding the housing market.

Moreover, the Deputy Minister of Development and Technology stated that another added value of the functioning of the DOM Portal shall be the provision of information necessary to conduct the state housing policy and parameterize housing support instruments to the public authorities.[4]

It is planned that the DOM Portal’s features will enable finding statistical transaction data based on criteria selected by the portal user (internet user). The search engine for statistical data on transactions will be based on the automated processing of queries providing characteristic parameters, such as property location, transaction period, the type of market (secondary or primary), type of property, number of rooms, usable area, location on a given floor. In other words, thanks to the DOM Portal, everyone will check the statistical prices of the properties one is interested in based on characteristic property parameters without much intellectual or organizational effort or professional knowledge of the real estate market.

The Ministry of Development and Technology indicates that the prices currently published by such entities as commercial advertising portals are usually the offer prices, which may significantly differ from market values (and may be prone to manipulation). Moreover, the transaction data provided by the National Bank of Poland are published only regarding the largest cities. Data from the Central Statistical Office in this regard are published with a significant delay or are not available publicly and free of charge (the Ministry points out, among others, data collected by the Polish Bank Association as a part of the Amron-Sarfin system).[5]

The internet platform, to be created, containing an automated data processing system is to be a reliable statistical tool, which would primarily have a positive impact on the housing market’s transparency (both in terms of residential premises and single-family houses)— access to reliable and up-to-date information from the market is to support the protection of the interests of apartment buyers primarily.[6]

Easy and safe data browsing

According to the justification of the Draft, the collected data and information are to enable the presentation of the statistical data on the DOM Portal in three sections: territorial, temporal, and generic, allowing those who are interested in purchasing an apartment or a house to find out about the prices of residential real estate in the selected area and at the selected period. Consequently, potential buyers will be provided with help choosing the most advantageous offer.[7]

The Ministry of Development and Technology stated that individual data collected in the DOM Portal will be subject to personal data protection. The personal data of the purchaser (including the PESEL number), land register number, and the data identifying the notarial deed, based on which the property was acquired, will be completely removed from the system after six years from their transfer. Only the data that can be generated based on the PESEL number concerning the purchaser’s year of birth and sex will not be removed.

The Draft (in Article 56e Section 2 of the Amended Act in the new wording) provides that statistical data may be made public on the DOM Portal if the following conditions for the location, period, and generic cross-section are met cumulatively:

1. the number of residential premises or single-family houses is not lower than six;
2. the number of buyers is not lower than six.

As the Ministry of Development and Technology indicates in the justification of the Draft, if, for example, only five transactions were concluded on a given street in the selected period, place, and of a selected type, the data will not be made available. The same data may, however, be used to illustrate transactions at a higher territorial level (district or gmina).

The solution proposed is to significantly reduce the risk of disclosing sensitive data of the parties to the contracts. It is also designed to exclude the risk of a situation when only one result will be found due to the selection of parameters via the DOM Portal user. Similarly, if the same person purchases six properties, the “statistical” result of the transactions registered in the system will not be displayed.[8]

New obligations (and sanctions) for developers

The existence of the IT system that the DOM Portal is to be will surely be dependent on the synchronization of data and the consistent transfer of them not only between the bodies of public administration but also by private entities involved in real estate trading (i.e. in practice primarily by developers).

As a rule, the data specified in the Draft (in Article 56a, Section 3, Point 2 of the amended Act in the new wording), including, among others, the date of conclusion of the contract, land register number of the property, the notarial deed data, the price of the residential unit or a single-family house, the purchaser’s PESEL number, the description of the property (including the number of floors, and the floor where the apartment is located, the area, and location of the property) are to be provided by the entrepreneur (e.g. a developer) immediately, within a period not exceeding 7 days from the moment of real estate transaction.

Importantly, a failure on behalf of the obliged entity (such as a developer) to provide the data or their transfer after the deadline will result in a sanction in the form of a fine.

The authors of the Draft in Article 60a Section 1 of the amended Act decided to take an even more severe approach to entities that provide data that is inconsistent with the facts – the catalog of sanctions for such actions is to include not only a penalty of restriction of liberty but also a penalty of imprisonment for up to 2 years.

Can the statistics lie?

The DOM Portal seems to be a very safe, convenient, and reliable tool. Nevertheless, a tool designed this way may raise certain (justified) doubts for people working in the transactions and real estate industry.

The doubts primarily concern statistical reliability and readability. Considering the characteristics of the housing market, it may turn out that the data on the DOM Portal—at least in some cases—could distort buyers’ perception of real estate market prices. In confrontation with the actual prices, the “averaged” data in some situations and locations could be completely abstract.

It is easy to imagine a situation in which on one street, or even one tenement/block of flats, the standard of finishing of flats or the specificity (colloquially speaking—the “luxury” offered to the purchaser) of premises with similar “characteristic parameters” considered by the Portal will vary dramatically and will remain key factors in the price of a given property. This may lead to some dissonance or even mislead the users of the DOM Portal who will be looking for residential premises in each location.

Although the discussed Draft is basically at the beginning of its legislative process, and the DOM Portal may only start functioning in about two years, we already encourage (particularly entrepreneurs from the real estate industry) to take a closer look at the changes in law and develop an optimal compliance plan. To best prepare our clients for the upcoming legal changes, our Law Firm’s Real Estate and Construction Law practice team members will monitor all legislative steps.

[1] https://legislacja.rcl.gov.pl/projekt/12389503/katalog/13080853#13080853

[2] Cf.: the Article 8 of the Draft

[3] https://www.gov.pl/web/rozwoj-technologia/portal-dom–okno-na-rynek-nieruchomosci-mieszkaniowych

[4] https://www.gov.pl/web/rozwoj-technologia/portal-dom–okno-na-rynek-nieruchomosci-mieszkaniowych

[5] The Justification of the Draft, p. 2.

[6] The Letter of the Minister of Development and Technology of September 16, 2024, DM-VI.0210.2.2024(11).

[7] The Justification of the Draft, p. 12.

[8] The Justification of the Draft, p. 14-15.