Finding somewhere to live in Warsaw

Where the flats are, and what they cost

Otodom carries the most listings and is the source most market commentary quotes; OLX is where owners let directly, which is the usual way to avoid an agency fee. Watch the vocabulary: a kawalerka is a studio, and what a Polish listing calls 2 pokoje is what a Briton would call a one-bedroom flat. Average asking rents in July 2026 were PLN 3,262 for a kawalerka and PLN 3,939 for a two-room flat, with the market flat to slightly below where it stood a year earlier. Supply is seasonal rather than scarce: July 2026 brought the highest number of new listings of the year nationally and the active count still fell, because the student intake absorbed them.

• Otodom for volume, OLX for owner-direct listings with no agency fee.
• The same floor area swings by PLN 1,000 to 1,500 a month between districts, with Śródmieście and Mokotów at the top and Białołęka and Ursus at the bottom.
• An agent acting for you generally charges a month's rent plus VAT, though that is market practice rather than a published tariff.
• Arriving in August or September means competing with the academic intake.

What a najem okazjonalny actually is

It is a fixed-term lease that only a private individual may grant, and only if letting flats is not their business, for a term no longer than ten years. It must be in writing to be valid at all, and so must any later amendment. Three annexes go with it: your declaration submitting to enforcement, the address you would move to if evicted, and the consent of whoever owns that address to take you in. Nothing comparable is asked of tenants in Germany, Czechia or Lithuania, so treat it as ordinary here rather than as a sign that something is wrong.

The notary, and what you are paying for

The notarial act is yours, not the landlord's: it is your own declaration submitting to enforcement and undertaking to vacate. The statute caps the notary's fee for it at one tenth of the minimum wage, which from January 2026 means PLN 480.60, before VAT and the cost of copies. The alternative address is simply indicated in the annexes; what may need a notarially certified signature is the statement from the person who owns that address, and only if the landlord insists on having it. Knowing which document needs a notary is what stops you paying for two visits.

The obligations that outlast signing day

If you lose the right to live at the address you named, you have 21 days from finding out to name another and produce a fresh consent statement, and the landlord may otherwise end the lease on seven days' written notice. On the other side of the contract, the landlord must report the lease to the head of their tax office within 14 days of it starting, and must show you the confirmation if you ask. A landlord who has not done it loses the fast eviction route the contract was signed for. That makes asking to see the potwierdzenie zgłoszenia both reasonable and revealing.

Deposit, czynsz and heating

One to two months' rent is what Warsaw landlords actually ask, but statute allows up to six months under a najem okazjonalny and twelve under an ordinary lease, so a larger demand is not necessarily unlawful. There is no central deposit-protection scheme, which is why the handover protocol with meter readings and photographs matters. The return itself is regulated: the deposit comes back within one month of you vacating, less whatever the landlord claims. The czynsz is the separate monthly charge to the cooperative or community, and it varies enough between buildings that you should ask for the figure on each flat rather than work from a range.

• Ask what the czynsz covers as well as what it costs. Water and heating are often inside it and sometimes are not.
• District heating is run through the building's heat node by the administrator, on weather automation set against an outdoor-temperature threshold. If it goes off for the summer that is the administrator's decision, and you can raise it with them.

In order

1. 1Budget the total: rent, plus czynsz, plus metered electricity and gas. Ask for the czynsz figure on every flat you shortlist.
2. 2Search Otodom for volume and OLX for owner-direct listings, where there is no agency fee.
3. 3Avoid arriving in August or September if you have the choice; that is when the student intake takes the supply.
4. 4Ask which contract you are being offered, and read the annexes rather than only the lease.
5. 5Line up the third party whose address you will name, and their written consent, before the signing date.
6. 6Book the notary for your own declaration submitting to enforcement, and check the fee against the statutory cap.
7. 7Sign, pay the deposit, and take a protokół zdawczo-odbiorczy with meter readings and photographs.
8. 8Two weeks in, ask the landlord for the tax office confirmation that the lease was registered.
9. 9Register the address at your district office — by the fourth day after you arrive if you are a third-country national, the thirtieth if you are an EU, EFTA or Swiss citizen — which is also how your PESEL is issued.