The presented concept of this PhD paper covers the following subjects: - the local development at parish level in the light of the theory of local and regional development, factors and barriers of parish development in Poland; - the role of parish authority influence in the active support of local development; - real estate and its significance for local development; - use of real estate economy and its instruments for stimulating the process of parish development // The local development is the process that in the main extents and depends on the activities of local communities and their parish representation. The parish council is the owner of significant sources of real estate in Poland: lands, buildings and premises. On one hand this real estate serves to perform their statutory responsibilities, and on the other hand it is used according to long-term strategy of parish council targeted at supporting processes of local development. Besides real estate management, the parish council - through a wide range of actions in its capacity as planner and executive- (i.e. area regulations, land use planning, property taxation, public investment in local infrastructure) relating to indirect real estate , influence the attraction for local investment. Within the scope of the described issues, the author is going to investigate the relationships between broadly-defined real estate economy executed at the parish level and grass root social-economic parish development. The main goal of the thesis is further explored through the following points: 1. Characteristics and evaluation of the degree of differentiation of parishes in Malopolska Province as regard to social- economic development and real estate economy / 2. Diagnosis of links occurring between the social- economic development and real estate economy in parishes / 3. Appraisal of the significance of parish councilsí activities, undertaken within broadly-understood real estate economy, to stimulate and manage social- economic development / 4. Measurement and evaluation of the operations of parish council in Malopolska Province in term of use and application of real estate economy tools / 5. Identification of similarities and differences in the range/scope of real estate economy, applied among parish of high and low level of social- economic development and attempting to interpret their causes and reasons. // The investigation has been planned in two stages: The first consists of the analysis conducted on available data in public statistics and using the methodology of taxonomic analysis. The second stage consists of opinion polls of parishes in Malopolska Province in view of their application of real estate economy tools for local development The equality of research depends first and foremost on the accessibility of statistical data in the public domain and statistical resources and on the willingness and cooperation of parish councils. The results of the research should give some answers to the general question about the relationships existing between local development and real estate economy executed at parish council level.