A Warsaw flat for 3–6 months: semester, contract or probation, what you can realistically find

Yes, you can rent a flat in Warsaw for 3–6 months: the law sets no minimum length for a residential tenancy, so a fixed-term lease for four months is perfectly valid. The difficulty is the market, not the law. Most landlords look for tenants for a year (our estimate; there is no statistic on this), so a medium-term flat has to be searched for deliberately, and you should ask the landlord about the term before any viewing. If the term is fixed, you can leave early in the cases written into the lease itself (art. 673 § 3 of the Civil Code, Kodeks cywilny) and for serious defects in the flat (art. 664 § 2 and art. 682), so the exit clause is something to settle before you sign.

This article is written by allproperty, an agency that finds flats for tenants, so the last section describes our own terms. The word “estimate” marks practice rather than law. The legal provisions and the university pages were checked on 7 October 2026, and the links are at the end. This is not legal advice.

Can you rent a flat for 3–6 months?

Yes. Under art. 659 § 1 of the Civil Code a lease can be for a fixed or an indefinite term, and we found no minimum in the Civil Code or in the Tenant Protection Act (ustawa o ochronie praw lokatorów). An upper limit does not matter for a few months, but for completeness: an ordinary lease made for more than 10 years is treated as indefinite after that period (art. 661 § 1), and for najem okazjonalny (a lease backed by the tenant’s notarial statement) the law sets a limit of 10 years (art. 19a(1)).

A medium term is usually needed in situations like these:

• an exchange semester or a full semester (about five months);
• a work contract or project in Warsaw lasting a few months;
• a probation period in a new job, after which you decide whether to stay in the city;
• a transition: you are waiting for documents, for your own home to be renovated, or for a family relocation to be decided.

Two practical points. A lease for longer than a year must be in writing, and without that form it is treated as made for an indefinite period (art. 660). For a shorter term the law does not require writing, but without paper you cannot prove the term or the conditions, and registering your address (meldunek) needs a document showing your right to the flat, for example a lease (art. 28(2b) of the Population Register Act). Sign in writing, with exact start and end dates. And do not take a lease with no end date just for flexibility: with monthly rent the statutory notice period is three months, to the end of a calendar month (art. 688), unless the lease sets another one, so you may be bound for longer than under a five-month lease.

Why do landlords prefer a one-year lease?

There is no data on the lease length landlords choose in Warsaw. What follows is our estimate, not a statistic.

• Vacancy between tenants. Every change of tenant means empty weeks, a new advert, viewings, cleaning and a new handover protocol (protokół zdawczo-odbiorczy, art. 6c of the Tenant Protection Act). On a short lease those costs are spread over fewer months.
• Paperwork. If the landlord uses najem okazjonalny, the tenant has to give a notarial statement and the landlord has to notify the tax office within 14 days of the start of the tenancy (arts. 19a and 19b). That is repeated for each new lease.
• Habit. Many adverts are written for a year, and a landlord often does not consider anything else until someone asks.

What may raise your chances of a yes (also an estimate): exact dates, proof of income or a work contract, readiness to leave a deposit (kaucja), and a clear answer to “what happens if you decide to stay”. The decision always belongs to the landlord, and we cannot guarantee it.

How do you write an early exit into the lease?

Start with the rule. Under a fixed-term lease either party can terminate it (wypowiedzieć) only in the cases specified in the contract (art. 673 § 3). No clause, no right to leave early. A lease can also be ended by mutual consent, but that depends on the landlord agreeing.

The Code has two exceptions, and you should not build a plan on them:

• art. 664 § 2: defects that make the agreed use of the flat impossible, where the landlord does not fix them in good time after being notified, or they cannot be fixed. The right is lost if you knew about the defects when you signed (§ 3).
• art. 682: defects that endanger the health of the tenant or household; here you can terminate even if you knew about the defects at signing.

What you can negotiate and write down (these are negotiating options, our estimate; have the exact wording checked by a lawyer):

Option	What it looks like	What to check
12-month lease with a tenant exit right	Tenant may terminate with N months’ notice, possibly after a minimum period	The notice period and what happens to the deposit on early exit
List of events	Exit on the end of an employment contract, study programme or project	Which documents prove the event
5–6 month lease with extension	Fixed term plus a procedure for extending by annex (aneks)	Who must announce an extension and how many weeks ahead
Replacement tenant	The landlord agrees in advance to accept a tenant you find	Without the landlord’s consent you cannot hand the flat to someone else or sublet (art. 688²), so agree on replacement up front

Form of notice: if the lease was made in writing, termination needs at least document form, so an email can do, unless the contract or the law requires another form (art. 77 § 2). Check what your own lease says and keep proof of sending. More about the contract in our article on what to check in a lease. The deposit is covered in the article on kaucja: it must be returned within a month of vacating the flat (art. 6(4) of the Tenant Protection Act), and the condition of the flat is recorded in the handover protocol.

What options are there for a medium term?

Four options below. There is no public data on how many flats are let each way.

Option	How it works	What to check
Lease for 3–6 months	A fixed-term lease (czas oznaczony) with start and end dates	Whether the landlord agrees; what happens on the end date; deposit and protocol
One-year lease with an exit clause	An ordinary one-year lease with a clause under art. 673 § 3	Notice period, minimum period, any payment for the notice period
Furnished medium-term flats	Some landlords and operators are willing to let a furnished flat for a few months	Which document you will sign: a lease (umowa najmu) or platform terms; an inventory of furniture in the protocol
Najem instytucjonalny (institutional lease)	The landlord lets flats as a business; the lease must be for a fixed term and in writing (art. 19f(2), art. 19g)	The tenant’s notarial statement accepting enforcement (art. 19f(3)); deposit of up to six months’ rent (art. 19f(5))

If the landlord is a private person and asks for najem okazjonalny, the term can also be anything, but you will need a notarial deed and a back-up address: details in the guide. If you need less than a month, that is a different category, described in the next section.

How is a rental for a few months different from a short-term one?

The line falls at around a month. The Hotel Services Act (ustawa o usługach hotelarskich) does not currently name a number of days for short-term rentals: a government bill (print 2865 of 21 July 2026) proposes to treat as a hotel service any short-term accommodation lasting less than 30 days, and to create a Central Register of Tourist Accommodation (Centralny Wykaz Turystycznych Obiektów Noclegowych). On 6 October 2026 the bill went back to Sejm committees after its second reading and has not been passed. EU Regulation 2024/1028 on short-term rental data applies from 20 May 2026 (the date is confirmed by the European Commission’s TRIS notification 2026/0236/PL of 11 May 2026). That is why we describe the register only as a draft. How owners compare the two models (yield, tax, the rules for short-term lets) is covered in the article on short-term vs long-term rental.

In practice the difference for you is this:

• Three months or more. An ordinary lease under the Civil Code: a deposit of up to 12 months’ rent (art. 6(1) of the Tenant Protection Act), a handover protocol (art. 6c), and, if you stay longer than 30 days, a meldunek.
• A short visit. Foreigners are exempt from meldunek if their stay in Poland does not exceed 30 days (art. 42(2) of the Population Register Act). For a viewing trip short-term accommodation works; how to plan one is in the article on moving to Warsaw within a week.

Erasmus and a semester: a dorm or a flat for two?

Start with the dorm. According to the UW 2025 factsheet, places for exchange students are limited, most of them double rooms with a shared bathroom and kitchen, and you apply in the same online IRK form as your study application. Places go first come first served. The application deadline is 15 May for the first semester or the whole year, and 15 November for the second semester. That is the 2025 edition: for the 2026/27 intake, check the current dates at bwz.uw.edu.pl. The university warns that there are usually more applicants than places: the rest go on a waiting list, so a place is not guaranteed, and you hear about a place a few weeks before the semester starts. A dorm costs PLN 520–1,100 per person per month (welcome.uw.edu.pl page, no update date, as of 7 October 2026). Other universities have their own rules.

What if you get no place? A flat for two is one option. For a rough calculation take Rentier’s asking-rent average for August 2026: about PLN 3,996 for 50 m² in Warsaw. Split between two, that is about PLN 2,000 per person before bills (our calculation on a sample flat, not a price list). So a separate flat usually costs more than a dorm, but gives you your own kitchen and bathroom and a term you set in the lease. According to the Rankomat.pl and Rentier.io report (13 August 2026), Warsaw has about 260,000 students and is the clear leader among cities, so competition for flats before a semester is high. More on student districts is in the article on the best districts for students, and on seasonality in the article on when to start looking.

This article is about flats: we do not cover rooms or dormitories here and we do not promise dorm places. If you look for a room yourself, the University of Warsaw advises signing a tenancy agreement and not paying in advance before you have seen the place. The signs of a fake advert are in the article on fake listings.

How does our search work if you need a medium term?

allproperty finds flats for tenants. The process is:

1. You fill in the form. In the field “From when?” write your move-in date and the term, for example “from 1 February for 5 months”. Add your budget, district and number of rooms.
2. Whether a lease of that term and an early-exit clause are acceptable is the landlord’s decision. The landlord always decides, so we cannot promise a result in advance.
3. Online viewings are held by video call: we ask to be shown the places that matter, ask the landlord what you would ask yourself, talk to the landlord directly and translate the conversation orally. This is not a sworn translation.
4. If you need to come first, there is a viewing tour: short-term accommodation for the time of your visit and viewings agreed in advance. We usually plan up to five viewings a day, and in two or three days you can usually see the suitable flats. Moving in depends on the landlord and on how well the deal is prepared. The accommodation for your visit is our own flat for daily rental; you pay for it separately, on the terms of daily rental.

We serve you in your language: Ukrainian, Russian, English, Polish, German, Italian, Spanish and Turkish. We do not give legal advice.

Fill in the matching form: in the field “From when?” write the date and the term. The fee is 70% of one month’s rent (czynsz najmu; the administrative rent, czynsz administracyjny, and utility payments are not counted), paid once after the lease (umowa najmu) is signed, invoice without VAT. Example: with czynsz najmu of PLN 3,500 the fee is PLN 2,450. On a short term this amount is a bigger share of the total rent than on a one-year lease, so factor that in beforehand. Phone: +48 666 866 468.

Sources

Checked 7 October 2026.

• Civil Code (Kodeks cywilny), arts. 77, 659, 660, 661, 664, 673, 674, 682, 688, 688² (consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 795, legal status as of 19 May 2026): eli.gov.pl
• Act on the Protection of Tenants’ Rights, arts. 6, 6c, 19a, 19b, 19f, 19g (consolidated text Dz.U. 2023 item 725): eli.gov.pl
• Act on Population Register, arts. 28, 40, 41, 42 (consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 384): eli.gov.pl
• Act of 14 July 2006 on the entry into, stay in and exit from Poland of EU citizens and their family members, arts. 20–21 (consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 1065): api.sejm.gov.pl
• Government bill amending the Hotel Services Act, Sejm print 2865, status on 6 October 2026: api.sejm.gov.pl
• Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 on data collection and sharing relating to short-term accommodation rental services: eur-lex.europa.eu; date of application per TRIS notification 2026/0236/PL: technical-regulation-information-system.ec.europa.eu
• University of Warsaw, Factsheet 2025 (deadlines, dormitories): bwz.uw.edu.pl
• University of Warsaw, accommodation for exchange students: bwz.uw.edu.pl/en/accommodation; UW dormitories and prices: welcome.uw.edu.pl
• Rentier.io (Rankomat.pl and Rentier.io report), “Studenci wracają na rynek najmu”, 13 August 2026: rentier.io; “Mieszkań na wynajem przybywa, a akademiki drożeją”, 21 September 2026: rentier.io

The cover illustration was generated by AI and does not show a real place.