Finding somewhere to live in Warsaw
Finding somewhere to live is usually the second thing a relocating family sorts out, after the school place and before almost everything else. The Warsaw rental market moves quickly and has a few cost lines that catch newcomers out.
This page covers how renting actually works here, where to look, and who helps. It is written for families arriving from abroad and for the consultants supporting them.
How renting works in Warsaw
The advertised rent is often not the whole monthly cost. This is the single most common surprise. Polish listings usually quote czynsz najmu, the rent paid to the landlord, separately from czynsz administracyjny, the monthly charge paid to the building administration for maintenance, common areas, water, refuse and sometimes heating. Utilities are separate again. Always ask for the total monthly figure including the administrative charge and an estimate for utilities before you compare two flats.
Deposits are commonly one month’s rent, sometimes two, and are returned at the end of the lease subject to condition.
Agency commission is typically around one month’s rent plus VAT. Who pays it varies, and ask at the first viewing, not at signing.
Leases are commonly twelve months. Shorter terms exist and are priced accordingly. If your posting has an uncertain end date, raise it early, because a landlord who knows is more flexible than a landlord who finds out.
Najem okazjonalny, occasional lease, is a specific Polish lease form that gives the landlord a simplified route to recover the property. It requires a notarial declaration from the tenant naming an alternative address. It is entirely legitimate and common, and understand what you are signing before you meet the term for the first time at the notary.
Furnished is the norm for rentals at the international end of the market, which suits a family shipping less. Unfurnished exists and is usually genuinely unfurnished, sometimes including no kitchen units.
Where to look
Most Warsaw listings, agency and private, appear on a small number of portals.
Otodom is the dominant property portal in Poland and the first place almost everyone starts. OLX carries a large volume of private listings alongside agency ones. Morizon aggregates further.
Listings are usually in Polish. Browser translation copes well, and the fields that matter most are the district, the number of rooms, the floor area in square metres, and whether the price shown includes the administrative charge.
Premium and boutique agencies
These firms work at the upper end of the Warsaw market, which is where most relocating families with a housing allowance end up looking. Listed alphabetically, not ranked. The notes describe what each is known for. They are not endorsements.
This is not a recommendation and not an endorsement. International American School of Warsaw has no commercial relationship with any of these firms, receives nothing for listing them, and has not verified their services. Please do your own checks.
En Casa Premium Real Estate. Premium properties, with a focus on the city centre, Mokotów and Wola.
Euro Villa. Houses and apartments at the upper end of the market, including the southern districts and the areas outside the city boundary, which is the ground families choosing space over a short commute tend to cover.
Hamilton May. Premium rentals and sales, with a stated focus on corporate lets and international clients. Works in English.
Lions Estate. Residential rentals with a stated focus on diplomatic clients, which usually means the districts where embassy families cluster.
Partners International. Long established on the Warsaw premium market, known for off market properties and for working with diplomatic and institutional clients. Works in English.
Poland Sotheby’s International Realty. The Sotheby’s International Realty affiliate in Poland, opened in Warsaw in 2024, with an office on Krakowskie Przedmieście. Luxury residential sales and rentals. Works in English.
Prestige Real Estate. Luxury sales and rentals in Warsaw, working with international clients. Works in English, and their Polish site is at nprestige.pl.
Vilea. Boutique luxury agency, and the exclusive affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate in Poland.
Agencies covering the broader market
Wider range, more volume, and worth including if your budget or your requirements sit outside the premium bracket.
Maxon Nieruchomości. One of the longest running Warsaw agencies, broad residential and commercial coverage.
Metrohouse. National agency with a large Warsaw presence, mainstream residential.
If you run a Warsaw agency working with relocating families and would like to be listed here, or if a detail above is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will update it.
Relocation and destination services
Where a move is employer supported, a destination service provider usually handles the housing search, viewings, lease negotiation and arrival paperwork as one package. Firms operating into Warsaw include Santa Fe Relocation, Crown Relocations, SIRVA, Move One and AGS, alongside Poland based providers. Foreigners.pl combines property search with settling in services for people arriving from abroad.
If your employer offers this, use it. The value is less in finding listings, which you can do yourself, and more in the lease review, the negotiation, and having somebody who has done the residence paperwork a hundred times before.
Before you sign
A short list of things worth checking, in rough order of how often they cause trouble later.
The total monthly cost, rent plus administrative charge plus an estimate of utilities, in writing.
Whether you can register your residence at the address. Some landlords are reluctant, and you may need the registration for administrative purposes.
The notice terms, in both directions, and what happens if your posting ends early.
An inventory and photographs at handover, signed by both sides. This is what a deposit dispute turns on.
Parking, which is priced and allocated separately in most Warsaw buildings and is not automatic.
The actual school run, driven or travelled at eight on a weekday morning, never measured on a map at the weekend.
One ordering note
Confirm the school place before you commit to a district. A lease runs twelve months and can be planned around. A place in a specific year group depends on what is available in that year group, and the choice of neighbourhood is much easier once you know where your child will be going every morning.
Which districts families actually settle in, and how they connect: where families live in Warsaw.
Back to moving to Warsaw with children.
Next step
The school place comes first.
Confirm the school before you sign a lease. A cross city school run twice a day shapes family life more than the flat does.
