Active Collection of Data in the Real Estate Cadastre in Systems with a Different Pedigree and a Different Way of Building Development: Learning from Poland and Slovakia

A cadastre is a system of major importance for the economy and for management strategies in support of sustainable development. Thus, its modernisation process (especially in the case of buildings) is extremely important. This study compared the results from the cadastre modernisation process of Poland and Slovakia, that is, countries with a different way of building development and different historical cadastral traditions. It was certain that in countries with dispersed development—such as Poland—the modernisation process could significantly change the cadastre’s picture. However, the analysis of the number of buildings in the cadastre after modernisation revealed a change of 3.048% for scattered development and only 6% for compact development. Thus, the urgent need to perform retrofits in countries with a scattered pattern of development was demonstrated. In addition, a comparative analysis proved that excessively frequent changes in the law cause the cadastre base to lose its validity. The Polish building cadastre has become a victim of such frequent changes in the law. It happened that just after the cadastre had been modernised at a high financial cost, the data on buildings collected in the cadastre became outdated as a result of a change in the law. Research highlighted that frequent changes and inconsistencies in the law result in a state of affairs in which activities that should be systemic and technical instead become activities that depend on political aspects.