**6. Summary**

In the study, we presented empirical evidence to support the thesis that spatial planning and spatial development relating to Poland's real estate market have serious drawbacks, leading to mismanagement and losses. The lack of certainty in the real estate function will be maintained, and the non-transparency of decisions made by local authorities affects the overall market. We compared it to the situation in other countries, concluding that Poland, compared to other countries, is characterized by a deeper degree of public governance failure. The lack of certainty and consistency in legislative solutions, and questionable planning practice, together lead to the domination of expenditures over incomes constituting the economic consequences of adopting plans and to the creation of a large mosaic of communes' regional structure in terms of balances resulting from spatial management. There is no wider use of tools related to the concept of governance in this respect, especially in-depth negotiations before planning decisions. There is also a lack of an objectively indicated scope of changes in the local plan that the public authority may conduct on the occasion of such potential negotiations (and such scopes are, e.g., distinguished in the systems of other countries).

Therefore, the lack of a wider implementation of local plans with poor planning practice perpetuates the negative phenomena (spatial chaos). The compensation claims provided for in the Polish system make it difficult to repair it more broadly. Interestingly, in the context of the concept of Value Capturing, even communal authorities deepen these trends, often not taking advantage of the (limited) possibilities of determining and collecting planning rent. There is also definitely a lack of other value capturing solutions, such as the transfer of the right to build (although it must be noted that even sectoral substitutes for value capturing solutions have not been adopted, an example of which is the urban agreemen<sup>t</sup> in the urban regeneration process—provided for in the regulations but not applied). Value capture instruments, which can be used by municipalities when the value of real estate increases due to the constructions of infrastructure from public funds, are also not often used in practice.

The conducted analyses indicate several important regularities related to financial effects on the binding local spatial development plans in Poland. Inflows and expenses related to the effects of adopting local plans constitute a high percentage of total revenues and expenses of communes' budgets. A relatively permanent phenomenon is the generally negative result of the effects of adopting local plans (a positive balance occurred only in two out of sixteen voivodeships).

The very heterogeneous financial policy of communes is noteworthy, both in terms of spending funds and obtaining income to implement local plans. It also results from a large diversification of communes' activity in the field of spatial planning—relating to the number, area of coverage, and functions of the adopted plans (dominant use of areas, exclusions from buildings, etc.). The functioning system's serious problem is the occasional occurrence of typical income mechanisms provided for in the Act on Spatial Planning and Development (2003), especially related to the planning fee (rent).

As a result of adopting local plans, there is a strong stratification of local governments' income and cost situation. The observed strong concentration of high revenues and expenses in a small part of communes, both forecasted and realized, implies considerable heterogeneity and generally diverse policies of communes in the field of spatial planning. The observed lack of significant regularities—statistical, functional, and spatial—makes us critically evaluate the local spatial policies, which often brings benefits to some local governments in similar socioeconomic realities and geographical locations, and to others it brings (in most cases) losses.

As the projected burden on local governmen<sup>t</sup> budgets related to the implementation of local plans (due to expenditure on infrastructure, public roads, land purchases, compensation for owners) often does not balance the revenues (from taxes and local fees and real estate trade), communes often suspend works on spatial development plans. It leads to the development of uncontrolled urbanization based on administrative decisions on building conditions, resulting in spatial chaos and has a limiting effect on local development, with serious financial consequences. They are related particularly to the purchase of land, infrastructure construction, and its maintenance in the future. These "extra" costs, increased due to dispersed, chaotic development, are estimated at EUR 20 billion per year [16].

To sum up, rational spatial managemen<sup>t</sup> is one of the most underrated endogenous growth impulses of economy in Poland. The high amounts of financial turnover related to implementing spatial plans, when related to many communes' budgets, indicate that spatial planning could be a driving force for local economies. Meanwhile, in many cases, due to negative balances, it threatens to destabilize public finances.

In conclusion, it can be said that for local politics and local law, compared to other countries, the Polish model has not proved successful, as it gives too much freedom in determining income and costs as well as the methods of obtaining and spending them, and thus generating not profits, but mostly losses. In this respect, the presented research provides an illustrative and symptomatic lesson for other countries on how not to proceed in spatial planning on real estate markets.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, P.S. and M.N.; methodology, P. ´ S.; software, M.B.; valida- ´ tion, M.B. and M.N.; formal analysis, P.S. and M.N.; investigation, P. ´ S., M.N., P.S. and M.Z.; resources, ´ P.S. and P.S.; data curation, P. ´ S. and P.S.; writing—original draft preparation, M.N., P. ´ S., P.S. and M.Z.; ´ writing—review and editing, M.N. and P.S.; visualization, P. ´ S., P.S. and M.B.; supervision, M.N.; ´ project administration, P.S. and M.N.; funding acquisition, P. ´ S. All authors have read and agreed to ´ the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
