Grażyna Kuźma analyses the draft legislation on personal investment accounts and its potential impact on the development of Polish equivalents of REITs in an article published in BPCC Contact Magazine Online.
Let’s analyse the government’s draft OKI regulations (osobiste konta inwestycyjne or personal investment accounts) to see if they could be the missing piece of the puzzle for Polish REITs (or rather their local equivalents) in 2026/2027.
The draft law on the OKI assumes that they will be launched as early as January 2027 and will introduce a voluntary investment ‘wrapper’ with a tax preference: no capital gains tax for income generated by assets held in an OKI, but in exchange for an annual tax on asset value above the exemption thresholds.
The exemption threshold is 100,000 złotys for investment assets and 25,000 złotys for savings assets (e.g. bank deposits and retail Treasury savings bonds). The tax rate is to equal 19% of the NBP reference rate (based on the level applicable on 31 October of the preceding year), provided that it may not be lower than 0.1%; for 2027 it has been communicated at approximately 0.85%.
Polish-style REITs: why the topic keeps coming back
A REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust), in its classic form, is a simple mechanism: the investor buys an interest (most often shares in a listed company) and in return gains exposure to a portfolio of income-producing real estate generating rental income – without having to buy an apartment independently, look for a tenant, and deal with renovations. Two features are key: a dividend model (in many jurisdictions, an obligation to distribute a significant portion of profit) and a special tax regime, usually favouring the ‘pass-through’ of income to the investor.
In Poland, the discussion has been ongoing at least since the old FINN project (firma inwestująca w najem nieruchomości – literally, firm investing in rental property) and has recently returned under the banner of SINN (społka inwestująca w najem nieruchomości – company investing in rental property). Various assumptions behind these solutions have appeared in government statements and in the trade press, but so far there has been no stable, final legislative text and no clarity as to taxation and the range of permissible assets.
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The full article by Grażyna Kuźma, Counsel in the Real Estate Practice is available in the latest edition of Contact Magazine Online, published by the British Polish Chamber of Commerce (BPCC).