Will there be an autumn boom of houses up to 70m2?

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The Ministry of Development presented a draft amendment to the Construction Law and the Act on spatial planning and development. The changes, among others, aim to enable the construction of houses up to 70m² without permits – one of the flagship projects of the Polish Deal (Polski Lad). Given that the regulations are expected to come into effect one month after their announcement – the first construction projects may be launched already in autumn.

The government’s proposal allows for the construction of single-family houses up to 70m² under a simplified formula – without a building permit, construction log and without the need to appoint a construction manager. Instead, it will be replaced by the so-called notification procedure with a construction design. In practice, this means that the construction notification will only require the preparation and submission of a construction design. At the same time, for safety reasons, the project assumes the construction of no more than two-storey single-family residential buildings up to 70m², with a maximum of 90m² of usable area, while an additional 20m² may be used as a loft. It is worth noting, that the calculation of the usable area of the building will include to full extend or 100% the area of rooms or their parts with a height equal to or greater than 2.20 meters, while those with a height of 1.40-2.20 meters -50%. The rea of rooms with a height lower than 1.40 meters will not be included.

However, there still will be a requirement to obtain a decision on outline planning and spatial development in case of a lack of a local zoning plan – this will also apply to the 70m² houses. The draft also assumes a requirement to locate a maximum of one such building per 1,000m² of the plot’s area, which means that if the adopted procedure is to be applied to the construction of two houses – the plot has to be 2,000m² of surface area. This should ensure that the Act will serve individual purposes only, preventing the construction of multi-building estates, according to the authors. In case of a smaller plot, also a maximum of one house can be built “on request”, which will have to be accompanied by a plot or land development design and an architectural-construction design. Then the architectural-construction administrative body will publish in the Public Information Bulletin information about delivery of the notification and objection to the investment for a period of not less than 30 days and not more than 60 days.

Bungalows included

The draft amendment also provides for an increase of the permissible development area of freestanding single-story buildings for individual recreation and periodic rest from 35m² to 70m². In this case, a limitation for safety reasons is also included – the span of structural elements in such objects should not exceed 6m, and the reach of the brackets is limited to 2m.

Will there be an autumn boom in construction?

Currently, the bill is still at the opinion stage. Assuming no issues arise during the bill’s legislative process, and taking into consideration the one-month timeframe for the provisions to take effect after the act’s introduction, building on the first houses with facilitation may begin as early as fall.