Poland

Polish Social Housing

Warsaw, Poland, 18 February,2006 - Under the EU VAT law Poland can charge a reduced VAT for building materials used for the construction of "social housing". And Poland will do just that.

Social housing is not luxury housing and it is not large homes. In Poland, luxury housing is housing that has luxurious fittings such as a swimming pool or tennis court. And a not large house is something less than 350 square meters.

Considering that most Poles are happy to have a flat of above 75 meters, a house more than four times as large is not considered a large house when it comes to social housing.

And considering that furnishing and maintaining a house of 350 square meters is expensive, after you pay probably over a million Polish zloty for the house especially, it might be said that the average Pole in need of social housing probably cannot afford this social housing.

But this is a convenient way for the Polish government to win its battle with the EU in Brussels. Poland blocked the recent new EU VAT agreement and demanded continuation of a preferential VAT rate. A reduced 7 percent VAT rate for building materails, according to representatives of the Transport and Construction Ministry, will now be in place beyond the end of 2007.

  Classified Polnews