Land in Warsaw's Fort Bema will be up for sale Courtesy of Jakub Goral

The Polish Army is planning to sell around 20 percent of its portfolio of developed and undeveloped real estate. To that end, a military infrastructure restructuring plan has already been signed by Defense Minister Bogdan Klich.

The upshot is that around 34,000 ha of land, as well as numerous buildings, could soon enter the market.

“Two years ago, while starting the professionalization and downsizing of Poland’s armed forces, I came to an agreement with my closest co-workers from the military, that the stock of military infrastructure would decrease,” Mr Klich recently told journalists. He added that this plan concerned various kinds of properties currently owned by the army, including both land and buildings.

Rationalizing the decision, the minister pointed to the fact that many of the properties in question are currently in disuse and that the Polish army is blocking the development of cities by holding on to them. The real estate in question will thus be transferred to local governments, as well as sold to private businesses, with the process expected to be completed by 2012.

At least some of the properties on offer could be highly attractive to real estate developers and investors. In Warsaw, for example, the Defense Ministry will sell a plot located in a historic part of the popular Mokotów district, as well as sizable allotments of land in the capital’s Fort Bema and Stara Miłosna neighborhoods. For its part, Szczecin will see the sale of a building located in the city’s exclusive Pododno neighborhood.

Potential profits from the sale are, for the time being, difficult to assess as final pricing will depend on the situation in the real estate market. In any case, the ministry is planning to earmark more than 90 percent of the proceeds for the modernization of the Polish army.