When you move to Poland, the best thing you can do is to make friends, join all of the expat groups for the city in which you are located, make friends and ask loads of questions.
The chances are any problem you encounter, we have all been through and can tell you exactly what to do.
The expat community in Poland is very friendly, we understand what it’s like to move to a new country and how important it is to help those of you brave enough to join us.
Moving to a new country can be scary but it doesn’t have to be, one of our friends moved to Poland, posted in an expat group they were looking for a room and within a few hours they were viewing a place and within a few days they’d moved into an apartment with several other expats.
Just know, we as an expat community are here to support each other, we also have some wonderful Polish friends who are happy give us advice and help with translations, which happens a lot at the beginning.
We believe that when you move to Poland, it will be one of the best decisions you’ve ever made, there’s so much to do here and so much going on you’ll always have something or somewhere new to explore.
Find accommodation in Poland
It’s easier to find accommodation if you’re physically located in Poland but fear not, if you want to start your search before you leave, you can.
You can contact most estate agents in Poland through email or phone, if you don’t know Polish yet, you can try to contact them in English.
If you’re emailing in English, try your best to use business English and avoid slang terms and complex words, this will enable the agents to better assist you.
You should always begin by contacting them first by email if you do need to call them, email them first to arrange a time and check that it’s okay if it’s in English.
There are several websites you can use to find a place to live, if you’re using Google Chrome, you can translate the pages from Polish to English to make navigating the website easier.
The most popular websites to find accommodation are:
- olx.pl
- Gumtree.pl
- Otodom
If you don’t manage to find an apartment or room before you leave, you still have other options available to you.
One of the ways some of us moved here was to first get an Airbnb and then use the time we are here to view rooms and apartments until we found one to move into.
There’s a lot of Airbnb rooms and apartments available in Poland so you can be flexible and book 2 weeks upfront and if you don’t find a room or apartment in that time, you can always extend your time or move to another Airbnb.
Another idea is to get yourself booked into a hostel, if you don’t mind sharing with other people until you find a place to live, there are some super cool hostels that you can find on HostelWorld or Booking.com.
Hostels are usually cheaper than hotels and an Airbnb but they aren’t for everyone.
How do deposits and rent work?
The same way they do in places like the UK, for example, where you pay your first months rent and deposit upfront and then you pay monthly.
Once you move out, you’ll get your deposit back after an inspection of the apartment or room, like anywhere else in the world when you move in, take photos of everything and also a video walkthrough, to ensure you won’t be blamed for breaking something that was already broken.
Landlords in Poland can be hit and miss, just like anywhere else, if you go with an agency you’ll obviously pay more but you’ll most likely receive a more professional service.
Like anywhere else, ask around in expat groups, Google the estate agents to check reviews and to see if they are credible before signing anything.
How much do apartments cost to rent in Poland?
It depends on what your requirements are.
I’ll give you some examples…
If you’re moving to Poland on your own and you just want a room, you can get rooms for about 900zl, these will be very basic rooms and most likely have a single bed but they are good if you just need a base and you spend most of your time out and about.
If you are moving to Poland and you’re looking for an apartment to call home, in one of the major cities like Krakow a studio apartment will be between 1000-1500zl and a 1-bed apartment will be 1500zl upwards depending on several factors like location, condition and style etc
Like anywhere, there’s always deals to be found, if you’re willing to compromise on the location you can get a really nice place for a little cheaper but you might spend more time on public transport.
Also, it’s worth noting that in Poland the rent that is advertised isn’t the total price for the room or apartment.
They have extra bills called ‘media’ and the rent you see for the apartment doesn’t include these costs for water, internet, electric etc which are usually between 300-500zl per month on top of rent of the advertised rent.
It’s a good idea to ask up front if the rent includes those extra bills and if they don’t – how much extra they will cost you.
How do rental contracts work in Poland?
Rental contracts are standard and what you’d expect in other countries throughout Europe, most landlords/agencies will offer you a 6-month contract, you can get short term contracts but you’ll have to pay a lot more for one of those.
It’s a good idea to ask any questions before signing, ask them to explain anything you don’t understand and make sure you know how much notice you have to give before leaving.
If you don’t understand your contract, don’t just sign it, take the contract away with you and ask for someone to explain it to you.
Next step is to learn how to open a bank account in Poland or you might want to learn how to get a Polish sim card and mobile phone number.
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