If you've had the opportunity to go away on holiday over the summer, I hope you caught up on some rest & relaxation. I'll be going away for a few days at the beginning of September - so during August I've been flying (thankfully unaffected by the recent airport strikes) to Poland, Czech Republic and Cyprus finding some great new deals (which I'll tell you about later).

But I really want to tell you about our new Slovak Republican deal - The Crossroads - which we'll be launching on 30th August. What I've noticed is that very few people actually realise the huge growth potential of this small county ... in a word it's outstanding!

Few know just how fast and furious the Slovak Republic is developing. The country's economy is the second-fastest growing in Eastern Europe. And it yields a GDP just slightly behind Baltic Tiger, Latvia. And all this has taken place over a very short period of time.

I believe that the Slovak Republic is one of the best European examples of fast-growing wealth - the speed at which this economy has grown and prospered in the amount of time that it has is simply unbelievable!

The country's car manufacturing industry illustrates this ideally. Just 5 years ago, the Slovak Republic wasn't producing a single car. Since then, some giant manufacturers including Volkswagen, Hyundai and Peugeot-Citroen have come to town, and now yield a forecast production of 850,000 vehicles by 2008.

Sound impressive? Well, compare this production output against one of Europe's ?-manufacturers of cars - Italy - who manufacture around 1 million cars per annum.

Then, compare the population of the Slovak Republic (5.5 million) to Italy (58 million), and you'll see that the Slovak Republic will be producing 1 car per 6.5 people and Italy 1 car per 58 people ...

That means the Slovak Republic will be producing 10 times more cars per person than Italy! Once again - this from a country that just 5 years ago wasn't producing any cars!

And - almost all of the cars produced in the Slovak Republic are exported!

The manufacturing plants just keep on coming... a new factory in Trnava - just 25 minutes from Bratislava - is expected to make up to 300,000 cars a year and will create 10,000 new jobs alone.

The manufacturers love the Slovak Republic - great geography in the heart of Europe (links to other parts of Europe via a good transport network), comparatively low labour costs and a highly educated and skilled workforce.

The knock-on economic effects of this investment are significant: local employment is improving (unemployment has fallen dramatically from 18.7% in May 2004 to 11.09% in June 2005), wages are increasing (real wage growth across all sectors increased a massive 7.1% in the first quarter of 2005), and both international and migrant workers are drawn to the area.


Increasingly people have more disposable income and a greater desire for quality housing - and that's exactly what we like to hear!

So, there's a clear and pressing demand for housing. And The Crossroads development is located in the heart of it all ... only 25 minutes from the car manufacturing centre, in an up-and-coming area of huge regeneration.

And just seven minutes' drive away you'll find the rapidly expanding main airport - which has recently been set for privatisation. This will mean continued regeneration of the immediate neighbourhood.

In short, I believe we've found the best development to meet the local demand and take advantage of the economic conditions. Keep your eyes out for the launch - I anticipate that this will be a popular deal amongst for our clients, and we have just 35 apartments available!

Now, onto another opportunity that we're looking at in Warsaw. After a recent visit and some close analysis and number-crunching, I've found a development that is exceptional... but you may get a feeling that you've seen it before... And that's because you most likely have!

The new Warsaw opportunity is one which we considered before, but at the time did not believe that the immediate market would deliver as good a return as other developments in the City. But, since then there has been a significant shift in immediate demand and supply and we've spotted a very attractive trend! And what's more, we've managed to negotiate prices that make this an excellent deal! So, we now believe we've found the best opportunity in the region, situated in the very heart of the Wilan?recinct - a very prestigious area. Watch out for details soon!

We're also working on a new opportunity in Prague... great news is that Prague has one of the lowest bank rates in Europe! So expect some good finance options on that one!