Impact of property rights and ownership on the development of Warsaw’s contemporary city centre

ABSTRACT

The paper raises the problem of the impact of unregulated property and ownership rights on the development of the city centre. It applies to Warsaw as a post-socialist city that has recorded fast economic growth since the country’s communist regime collapsed in 1989. We follow the course of changes in the city centre of Warsaw, in particular, those pertaining to land use and high-rise buildings for office use as investments that encounter difficulties under the unregulated status of construction sites and lack of clear regulations for private property restitution that was nationalized under socialism. To describe and explain the difficulties, we provide data showing the location of large companies and office buildings, and examples of conflicts as well. Unregulated ownership issues and property rights weigh on Warsaw’s city centre, now vastly dispersing and gravitating westwards, and prevent the district from rational and effective development.

KEYWORDS:

• Ownership
• property restitution
• office space
• Warsaw
• post-socialist city

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 World War II brought physical extermination to 50% of the population and destruction to 82% of the infrastructure, notably in the central areas.

2 From the name of the Chairman of the State National Council.

3 (http://www.rdc.pl/informacje/8-tys-postepowan-ws-dekretu-bieruta/)

4 Until 2002, the Municipality of Warsaw was an association of 11 municipalities (boroughs) with their elected councils, own tasks, strategic documents, and land use planning competences. Due to centralization in 2002, the city became one municipality divided into 18 districts which are less independent than before.

5 For instance, in the 1990s the entrepreneurs often had to set up offices in private apartments and hotel rooms.

6 For instance, hotel Mercure from 1992, multi-family building from 1994, high-rises Ilmet or Kaskada from 1998 were demolished.

7 CBRE (2017) estimated monthly prime headline rents in the central locations as 20–23 €/m² while 15.5 €/m² in non-central locations.

8 Each 600–800 m² in size