Poland's third tier cities - by which we mean those cities beyond what we classify as capital cities (Warsaw and Krakow) - have provided some spectacular capital growth in the last few years.

But, as with all turbo-charged price growth, the strongest growth comes first - so the key to third tier investing is timing. Get it wrong and you can be left holding an underperforming investment in a weak rental market.

Get it right and you can benefit form some of the most spectacular gains anywhere. The time to invest is just before or during take off.

Białystok, in Poland's north east quadrant, near the Belarus border, and close to Russia and Lithuania, appears to have many of the ingredients that add up to excellent property price growth.

Indeed, there is strong evidence that the property price boom is already underway in Białystok, with property prices rising by 30 per cent in 2006 and showing a similar rate of increase in 2007.