How to sell a warehouse - documents, tax and the listing

And those questions come with a specific price tag. Miscounting the 5-year period can mean 19% tax on a gain you could have avoided by waiting a few months. A listing without the ceiling height and access details puts off buyers, who start with exactly that. And selling a warehouse with a tenant, described as an ordinary sale, undervalues a property that earns income from day one.

Below is everything step by step: preparation, documents, selling with a tenant, tax and the listing. The rules described are Polish, because that is where the listings on Maszbox.pl are located.

How to prepare a warehouse for sale

A warehouse buyer judges it differently from a flat buyer. The decor does not interest them. They want to know whether the building is dry, whether the loading door works and whether a van can drive in. Before you publish the listing:

• Empty and clean the interior. An empty warehouse in photos shows the real floor area and the condition of the walls and floor.
• Fix small defects that catch the eye straight away: a sticking loading door, a leaky window, lighting that does not work.
• Check the roof and signs of damp. Water stains are the first thing a buyer will ask about and the most common reason for negotiating the price down.
• Gather the technical data: floor area, height at the lowest point, loading door width, type of power supply, type of heating (if any).

Which documents to prepare

For the contract at the notary you will usually need:

• a document confirming ownership, for example the notarial deed of purchase, a court decision on acquiring an inheritance or a deed of gift,
• a current copy of the land and mortgage register (księga wieczysta), from which the buyer can check whether the property is encumbered, for example with a mortgage,
• an extract and map from the land register,
• a certificate of the plot's designation in the local zoning plan, because a buyer planning storage activity wants to be sure they can carry it out there.

Agree the full list for your situation with the notary before booking an appointment. It depends, among other things, on how you acquired the property and whether the building stands on your own land. The order of formalities is similar to our guide on selling a storage unit step by step.

Selling a warehouse with a tenant

If the warehouse is rented out, you do not have to wait for the contract to end. A rented property can be sold as a ready investment: the buyer gets rental income straight away and does not have to look for a tenant.

The rules are set out in Article 678 of the Polish Civil Code. The buyer steps into the seller's place as the landlord, so the lease does not expire. However, the buyer may terminate it with the statutory notice periods. They do not have this right if the lease was concluded for a fixed term, in writing, with a certified date, and the warehouse has already been handed over to the tenant.

In practice this means one thing: show the buyer the lease. A fixed-term lease with a certified date guarantees them income, which is a strong argument in price negotiations. A lease without these features, on the other hand, lets them decide freely whether to keep the tenant.

Private sale or sale from a company: tax

How the sale is taxed depends on whether the warehouse belonged to you privately or was part of your company's assets.

A private warehouse. If you sell before 5 years have passed, you pay 19% tax on the income, meaning the difference between the sale price and the costs (for example the purchase price), not on the whole amount. The five years are counted from the end of the calendar year in which you bought or built the property, not from the day of purchase. So a warehouse bought in March 2022 can be sold without income tax only from 1 January 2028. A sale before that date is settled in the PIT-39 return by 30 April of the following year.

A company warehouse. If it was a fixed asset in your business, you do not settle the sale in PIT-39, but within the business. VAT also comes into play: the sale of a building is sometimes exempt, but this depends, among other things, on when the building was first used. In both matters, agree the details with an accountant before signing the preliminary contract, because this determines the amount you actually receive.

On your own or with an agent

An agent will handle listings, viewings and some of the formalities, but usually charges a commission on the sale price. Selling on your own means more work on your side and the full amount for you. With warehouses, buyers are often business owners who browse listings themselves and know what they are looking for, so selling without an agent is a realistic option here.

If you are selling as a company, you can run a company profile on Maszbox with all your offers in one place.

What to show in a warehouse listing

Warehouse buyers filter offers by parameters that flat listings do not have. If they are missing, the listing is dropped before anyone calls. Include:

• the floor area and height at the lowest point, because the height decides whether shelving or a forklift will fit,
• the width and height of the loading door and whether a van or a lorry can drive up to it,
• access: round the clock or at set hours,
• utilities: electricity (including three-phase power, if available), water, heating,
• tenancy status: available immediately or rented, and if rented, for what period and at what rent,
• photos: the interior, the loading door from outside and the access road.

You can add the listing for free by following the guide to adding a listing. It will go into the warehouses for sale category, where people interested in exactly this type of property look.

If you are not sure you want to sell, consider renting it out. A warehouse listed in the warehouses for rent category earns income, and the property stays yours. We write more about this approach in the article on how to earn from free space. You will find all offers in this category on the warehouses page.