Long-Term Public Land Leasehold: the Polish Case

Abstract

In Poland private land was never fully nationalized, nonetheless, almost half a million hectares of
public land are nowadays leased using what Poles call “right of perpetual usufruct” (RPU) a figure
that resembles legally and has partially its origins in the leasehold as is known in Spain.
Consolidated in the middle of the communist epitome, the RPU was given, in the framework of longterm
land leasing, to households and public companies instead of full property. Nevertheless the
role of RPU in the transition age has been enormously changed: it has played a key role as a tool
of land use control, in a context where communist master plans were declared redundant. Also RPU
has modestly fulfilled the income of public authorities, since property tax is not performing well
because of the problems on the cadastral system. In this paper shows the way how RUP works,
outlining its potentialities and failures. The analysis of interviews with experts suggest the
imminent transformation of this figure which will end or reduce his role to a way of providing
affordable land for uses socially necessary, or as a way for income generation on public land, which
by their location and use, are highly profitable.