The government sees a problem where there is none? Expert: It’s not flipping that needs to be addressed
– The real problem is not flipping, but over 300,000 apartments that have been purchased and are in a developer’s condition and are empty – says Krzysztof Granat, legal advisor to K&L Legal and a real estate market expert.
Magdalena Bukowska: The left wing prepared the project anti-flippers act and claims that it is a panacea for rising housing prices. How do you evaluate this project, which even divided the government coalition at the last session of the Sejm?
Krzysztof Granat: The project changes one thing – it introduces an additional, degressive tax rate to the Act on Tax on Civil Law Transactions in the case of quick operations related to the acquisition and sale of the right to real estate. The longer we own a given property, this rate will decrease until it finally returns to 2%.
The intention of the MPs is to limit speculative real estate trade in order to, at least initially, stop the trade in apartments, which are purchased only to make money on the difference between the purchase price and the sale price. Moreover, politicians assume that by introducing this tax they will ensure that real estate will only be purchased by people who want to purchase it for housing purposes, and not for speculative purposes.
Will this proposal actually change anything? A regulation has been in force for a year that states that the buyer must pay PCCC tax of 6%. from the purchase of the sixth and each subsequent apartment.
The presented solutions are very similar to the regulations that already exist and which are not effective.
The latest project may result in real estate acquisition operations only pushing their prices even higher.
And won’t this anti-flipping law mean that people who make a living from flipping will start scheming and circumventing the law to avoid paying new levies?
