Building real estate in Poland

There is a concept of a building real estate in Polish legislation. It concerns a certain legal status (or a legal title to the land), namely the right of perpetual usufruct - this right is limited in time and does not find its counterpart in the legislation of the "old Union states". The right of perpetual usufruct applies only to land which is the property of local government units or the State Treasury in Poland. According to the Act on real estate management, the property is put into perpetual usufruct with the simultaneous obligation of the perpetual usufruct of buildings and equipment on the land. Hence, the land is in perpetual usufruct whereas the buildings and equipment which form part of it are the property of the perpetual usufructor because he has to buy it in connection with the acquisition of the land for perpetual usufruct. Despite the separate ownership of land and building, the property has one perpetual register.

The basic legal issues of perpetual usufruct are regulated in Poland by the Civil Code and the Act on Real Estate Management. The separate ownership of buildings is a right related to the right of perpetual usufruct and can not last after the expiry of that right.