By Robin Bowman

The Romanian property market is in stall mode in some locations, most notably Bucharest.

This leaves two strategies for investors who accept the longer-term arguments for investing in this large CEE market, which has huge potential for economic and property price growth.

• One - forecast when the second phase of accelerated growth will arrive in established property markets.
• Two - search out third-tier locations where property prices have not yet taken off.

Sounds easy, perhaps. But putting either strategy into action is a little harder, and is all about timing.

We know that CEE property markets that boom - like Bucharest, like Warsaw before it and like Prague before that - grow fast and fairly rapidly reach an affordability ceiling. However fast salaries are rising, however low mortgage rate might be, there comes a point where demand will push up property prices to a level that is unsustainable, or unaffordable.