Hi I was wondering if anyone can help me with an area of confusion. I recently bought an apartment in the Balcony Gardens development in Wroclaw. The PS investment pack states that the development will take 20 months, putting handover in mid 2008. However, PS Poland consultant Robert Chojnacki is advertising these properties on his website www.tabelaofert.pl and states expected completion date to be December 2007. Does anyone know why there should be a six-month difference? Also an identical-sized apartment to mine is being offered on his website at 40% more than I paid through PS. I'm not complaining, but I can't believe prices have gone up that much in less than a month. Is it an example of a great PS deal, or is the package different (i.e includes kitchen and parking space), anyone know?

Hi David, I also bought in the Balcony Gardens, so I am also interest in getting flat why a there is a 6 months difference between the completion dates in the prospectus and the completion date of the property advertised. Will check this with the PS client services directly.

Re - property you saw advertised, can you give some details of it (i.e. internal square meters, external square meters, floor). With which unit are you comparing it to in the deal?

Hi Erico The property I bought in the development was a 2-room apartment sized at 48.5sqm internal space, 10.3sqm external space. My one is on the second floor. The one advertised on the website is on the third. I paid pln5629sqm, the advertised one is pln7536sqm. I think I was a little over-enthusiastic with my calculations, I make the price difference about 34%. Perhaps it's a premium for a higher floor. Mind you, they haven't sold it yet. :)

David, Had a look the rednet website and should the flat advertised go for the 365496 PLN, this would show the growth figure you are calculating (discounting a potential premium for being in 1 floor higher).

Question is: In Poland how can one really know for how much the specific flat went for?

Hi, One more info, when I compare the prices for the 2 bedroom units similar to the one I bought I can see a difference of around 7 ro 8%, i.e. about the discount we were given... So might be related to 1 bedroom flats (or 2 rooms as they call in poland) Erico

HiI would like some reassurance on the location of the Balcony Gardens development in Wroclaw due to complete next year (the pictures on the developers website look impressive).The location of the development is to the north of the centre in the area of Psie Pole.The PS report on 2nd tier cities states'....Northern districts are gaining popularity while districts like Psie Pole or Nowy Dwor are rarely listed as desired places to live, mainly due to their distance from the city centre and high concentration of panelaks'.This seems a little contradictory - or is it the fact that the location is on the border and can still be classed as a central location even thought it is a 10 minute tram ride away from the centre?Many thanks

Hi Sanj


I've always been a bit concerned about the district of Psie Pole on this development which is the poorer area of Wroclaw.

You can view all the panelaks along Obornicka on: wroclaw.hydral.com.pl/48460,foto.html

Maybe it will all be redeveloped one day

Hi,

Psie Pole is an administrative district divided into sub districts. Psie Pole is also a sub district’s name and that’s what we meant in the profile saying that ‘ Psie Pole is not desired place to live’.

Many of the Psie Poles’s sub districts are well established and good residential zones, mainly those with good transport links (Karłowice), others gaining popularity due to being close to the city centre (Różanka).

Balcony Gardens are on the border on Różanka and Ligota sub districts which are characterized by large share of single family houses along with panelaks. Having lived there for a year I can say it’s a nice and quiet area with good social infrastructure (shops, schools, etc) good transport links and easy access to the city centre.

Hope that helps

Anna

Anna

Many thanks for clearing this up and providing me with that reassurance.

Best regards

Sanj

Hi

For those investors in Balcony Gardens, there are some very recent pictures of the development on the Profit website.

Note that they are on the Polish version (the English version will be updated next week I believe). Click on the section that says Zielona Pergola and then Zdjecia z budowy.

They look pretty good to me.

With completion still 4 months away, they have sold over 70% of the development (there was 20% taken by PS but not sure if this was fully taken up).

At this stage of the development, is this a healthy take up rate?

Do locals prefer to buy once they can see a completed unit rather than off plan and can one exepect accelerated sales over the next few months as we approach completion? ( I reckon only 6 or 7 units were sold over the last month).

The 'notional' capital growth has been steady and the recent PS performance update indicates that the rental market is 'excellent' so thats a good start!

However, one lingering doubt, and it always comes back to exit strategy/making a real profit rather than a paper profit etc is if you did want to sell soon after completion and there are say 15 or 20 units left on the development, I would imagine your all important resale price is likely to be below current market value and so 'actual' profit could be less than indicated by PS figures.

The other plus for the deal is that there are no other developments nearby coming onto the market at the same time.

Your comments are appreciated.

Regards

Sanj