This is a guest post by Marek Kamella on the topic of buying in land in Poland. Marek runs several travel websites including Kraków Christmas, I love Poland and Gdańsk Christmas Market.
Have you ever thought of just getting away from it all? Packing your bags, boxing all your stuff and leaving the UK?
Well, that’s my plan.
I’m the only member of my family born in the UK, which has been my home for over fifty years. Poland has only ever been a two-week holiday deviation from my normal UK existence.
The fear of the unknown is very real but the lure of new adventures and new scenery trumps everything.
Just a few weeks ago, my partner and I completed the purchase of a plot of land just outside the Tri-City, in northern Poland. The plan is to eventually build our own house and move over there, lock, stock and Golden Retriever.
Unlike the UK, Poland’s real estate market still heavily comprises plots of land that are available for sale with the ability to build upon them.
The Search
We had started searching in earnest earlier in 2025. There are several property portals which include plots of land for sale and we’d been scouring these sites on an almost daily basis.
Looking for land remotely, i.e. from the UK, is not an easy task as you cannot just fly over to Poland every time a plot is of particular interest. Therefore, we had to accept that some of our preferred plots may have been sold by the time we got to fly over.
We had two visits to Poland planned this year and intended to use both of them as scouting missions to find land that ticked some, or all, of our boxes.
My partner’s family lives in Gdynia, which unfortunately for us, happens to be one of the most expensive property markets in Poland. Ideally, we would have liked a house with a decent sized garden in Gdynia but the prices were too high and the property offerings for our budget decidedly uninspiring.
We widened our search net to include areas within a 20-25 minute drive from Gdynia. Land within this area was much more affordable for us and we were able to draw up a shortlist of three plots to look at when we next visited Poland.
Prior to arriving in Poland, we had scrutinised Google satellite images of all the plots to an almost forensic level of detail but reality showed us that photos never show the true story.
Choices, choices
The first plot we drove to was beautiful. An end plot on a quiet street with a forest to one side. Opposite to the piece of land was, what looked like, a rather expensive self-built house alongside a sweeping small valley lined with pine trees. It very much looked like an up and coming, desirable street only a twenty minute drive from the centre of Gdynia.
We were able to walk on the land but it was quite overgrown, and we couldn’t walk the entire area of the plot.
The second plot we viewed was, on paper, my favourite. The land was nestled into a forested, residential street, not far from the main road to Gdynia but far enough that road traffic wasn’t a problem.
I immediately noticed that this plot was even more overgrown than the first one. This is not unusual, especially if you’re looking at land near a forest as the surrounding trees self-seed and bare land will just sprout up pine saplings after a relatively short time.
It makes visualising your house on that land very difficult and you really need to stretch your imagination to do so.
The third plot of land we visited was my least favourite on paper. The photos appeared to show a sparse, desolate area of land. Moreover, it was further away from Gdynia, albeit only an extra five minute drive from the other two plots.
To our surprise, it was love at first sight.
The plot we went to view was a corner plot in a meadow surrounded by a pine forest on two sides of the plot. The forest (part of the enormous Tri-City Landscape Park) extended into the plot providing a private forested area on the land.
With hearts beating and minds racing, we drove back to Gdynia waiting for our feverish minds to cool down and think more rationally about the decision we were about to make.
We spent that evening looking at the Google images again of all the plots and noticed something about the first plot we had missed previously. The Google satellite image showed a neighbouring plot to the one we viewed which seemed to have what looked like machinery, caravans and strange looking buildings.
We drove back the next day and went around the back to see what this could possibly be and discovered what looked like a make-shift work yard filled with timber, some heavy machinery and portacabins. It was the last thing you would want to be living next door to. This experience proves that proper research has to involve site visits as opposed to mere reliance on the Internet and online images.
The following day we made another visit to the second plot. Despite the land being heavily overgrown and doing its very best to resemble the Amazon jungle, I was determined to wade through the over-growth and try to get a feel for the land.
It certainly had potential but my heart sank when I reached the back of the plot as there was a steep drop to what looked like another industrial work yard and again, something we would not want to live next door to.
And with that disappointment, we returned to plot number three and our hearts and minds were now both in sync.
We were determined to buy this plot and our offer was accepted.
The Buying Process
Buying land in Poland was relatively straightforward but not without its stresses.
Things work differently in Poland as one might expect.
When you’re looking to buy land, it’s important to understand what “media” (as the Poles call it) is connected to the land. For example, do not assume water, electricity or gas are connected to the land you’re looking to buy. Always ask the agent what is connected and what isn’t.
Some estate agents also charge a commission both for the seller and the buyer. You should take this factor into account when working out your budget.
In Poland, the notary performs similar duties to that of a conveyancing solicitor in the UK. However, one of our biggest stresses related to the actual transfer of money for the land.
The most obvious way to make a large international transfer is via your own UK based, high street bank. Unfortunately, these banks offer very uncompetitive exchange rates. Online transfer companies like Wise or Revolut offer much better exchange rates, and when you’re sending a large amount of money the savings alone on rates can amount to several thousand pounds!
For this reason we chose to transfer the money via Wise but unlike UK high street banks they do not have FCSC protection (a guarantee that your money is safe up to a limit of £ 120,000).
It is a risk that needs to be assessed and can be mitigated by choosing one of the more established online banks. The risks of a bank closing down whilst in possession of your funds might be miniscule but that risk does exist.
We decided to drip feed our funds to the buyer via Wise over several days to minimise the risk even further. Transfer times took about two days from transfer to confirmation of receipt.
The Hopes and Fears
Moving to another country is a massive change at any age but even more so when you are in your fifties or sixties. The recent passing of my elderly Polish mother here in the UK has propelled me to seize the day and to start taking a swing at life and the limited time we may have left here.
The land we have bought is in a small village, yet close enough to the bright lights of Gdynia and my partner’s family that we can live in both worlds.
I will have to learn to adapt to driving on Polish roads. I drove for the very first time in Poland earlier this year and thought I did OK. However, my partner grabbing the seat of her chair in the car was totally unnecessary.
Forest roads can be dark in summer and pitch black at night. Driving in the winter is not something I can say I am looking forward to.
When we were walking on our land we spotted animal tracks and the agent told us that wild boar are prevalent in the area.
My partner later told me, almost gleefully, that wolves are known to be found in the forests around our land. I haven’t told our Golden Retriever yet.
It’s been a stressful and eventful year and our plan now is just to let the dust settle a bit. We have no pressing timeline to move and building the house will require plenty of time and planning but a new life awaits us.
Poland is being seen as an increasingly popular choice for Brits to move to. The language barrier perhaps puts many off buying land in Poland but if you are determined enough then it’s a very attractive proposition and much closer to the UK than Australia.