Zoning plans are the basic legal acts regulating spatial planning in Poland and they determine the rules of building and development of land by investor. Local government is not obliged to draw up the plans. The content of plans does not necessarily cover the entire territory of municipality. Nowadays not all municipalities have current plans and hence the planning situations can differ a lot. One of the consequences is that formal determinants of predevelopment phase investment process are different. Investor who wants to build on land without zoning plan is required to apply for planning permission prepared for each person.The next step to start building process is obtaining building permission. In practice that, the most important determinant among the conditions which have the greatest impact on investment decision is planning situation. The purpose of article is researching the impact of changeable planning conditions on investment activity of real estate developers in chosen cities in Poland. Authors want to verify the research hypothesis, which is the investment activity is increasing on the areas which are covered by local zoning plans.In order to verify the hypothesis, authors will analyze nature and territory of local zoning plans, as well as building permissions obtained both from the local planning and planning permission (particularly if the location of investment.