And though the quality of service provided by some real estate agents might have given rise to some doubts, their professional capacity had increased along with their quality of service. Besides competition, The Real Estate Act has contributed thereto providing for licensing the business and relevant eligibility criteria. A persistent weakness has been the absence of the national real estate information system. Property adviser has massively debuted at the marketplace, which is required for the

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... professional property valuation and banking risk management. As with agents, this profession itself, as well as the professionalism of the local providers, still evoke emotions, but it can be expected that licensing and competition shall enforce relevant standards soon. Notary public offices' privatisation was followed by significant raise in the notary act prices, but has eventually resulted in a development of a real consumer-oriented market for the service. The progress in the land register system improvement has been very slow over the last dozen or so years, especially in the largest cities, despite the fact that this system is the basic warrant of real estate trading safety in a market economy. Poland's accession to the European Union as well as a (currently very slow) unification of EU's real estate and loan markets shall have a positive long-term effect on the market, in terms of its further professionalisation, increased competition, and better regulatory environment. This shall increase the market's professionalisation and safety of its players, although in the longer run it shall undoubtedly tie the residential market up with the interest rate effect. Yet, so far, the housing policy was rather a risk-enhancing than a stabilizing factor in the sector. It also hasn't been creating a coherent system. This situation has to be changed. Without long term and complex housing policy it will be impossible to build efficient system of covering housing needs. A rational housing policy should support housing supply, market growth (resource flexibility), and overhauls. Problems that have to be answered in the future, belong to a more general housing policy and the role of the mortgage loans system in it. This is connected to the problem of availability of homes for various income groups of the society. Authorities responsible for housing policy should decide how to cover this needs and how far to go with guarantee and subsidy programs in the mortgage market or in support of developed private or a semi public rental housing with modest rents. Finally, one of crucial elements of such a policy should be to lower the sectoral risk level, which is still high. The banking sector has undergone some substantial changes in developing commercial mortgage loans, away from the official housing policy but with the assistance of international organisations (USAID, The World Bank). With the inflation and loan interest rates falling banks went to compete intensely, establish-