The institutional environment of the market has been transformed and modified as a concequence of political, economic and social stimuli. The adoption of planned economy rules in Poland induced the lack of the true real estate market. The precedence of the state over citizens' rights begot weak private ownership protection. The real estate was regarded mostly as a commodity essential for human life and not as an investment asset. The introduction of democratic principles and economic transition strengthened private ownership protection and gave a new meaning to real estate. However, it was necessary to establish new and effective institutional instruments for making the most of the real estate economic potential, it is ongoing process. One of the main problems was the lack of reliable information and data on the basic legal level (the land administration system did not work properly) and on the market level (there was scarcity of data about prices, rents and vacancy). The aim of the paper is to profile current reforms and new instruments which have been introduced in the area of institutionalinformational environment of Polish real estate market and their consequences for conducting research. As a pattern for potential ongoing changes a comparison with the British real estate market institutional environment is provided.