interesting article, but sometimes my suspicions are raised by the diet of breathlessly promotional material we get. is there really not a single downside to ostrava? steve, you say it has many parallels to brno - is that the same brno that was also a faultless opportunity (since when PS's 4 deals have returned annual capital growth of between 4% and 14% - low by regional standards)? i'd be more interested in an article about, e.g. why the brno deals didn't deliver to expectations, and what can be learnt from that. also, relying on polish migrant workers seems to contradict the several PS articles on how the polish border region is about to boom. perhaps czechs will start crossing the border to work in poland? regards, dan

The brnno deals looked pretty good to me actually. Seems to easy to concentrate on the negative but how about the fact that rental yields in brno are very high which would also indicate that there is a lot of room for capital growth. I'd say if you take a more reasonable long term view or at least a medium term view of 5 yrs the brno deals will be very good. If you are all about 12 month capital gain then go for Romania but I wouldn't be too dismissive of Brno deals which have solid growth prospects, lower risk, cashflow positive, and much easier to obtain finance.

I was there last month on the way to PL. I think it's a very promising location.I was there or close there 2-3 years ago and I sense it changing rapidly Slovakia must be much nearer than 150km because it is only 1-2 fast train stops to |Cesky Tesin and that is the SK and PL border, the former for trains. Downside of course there is, actually I had expected prices are lower there than you are quoting but perhaps I have not factored in some recent price inflation and/or new build premiums. Also it will never of course have the attraction of Praha or maybe even Brno The area certainly looks very much on the up- there is also a new Super City train to Praha 7 ran in conjuctions with Czech Airlines etc(another very promising location is Praha 7 I might add!), and of course the closeness to PL and SK is no disadvantage either. Thank you for your report, Ostrava is an excellent location and also would suggest Olomouc Pardubice Hradec Kralove and Pilsen as places to look

Guys, I think we've grossly understated the returns on the Brno deals, which we have a habit of doing in CZ. There was an article published in a newspaper this morning her in the Czech Republic about how prices are rising at record rates here, you can find a summary here: http: / /www .praguemonitor .com /realestate/ Basically says places like Ostrava have gone up 33% similarly many other cities have gone up at least 25%. Just to reiterate i think the Czech market is the best in Europe right now and is where i'm putting my money ... i'm in the process of completing on a property in prague 3 and am trying to close a deal on a unit in prague 7 right now. There is a huge consumer boom taking place here right now and its filtering it way into the property market as i outlined in the following article: http: / /www .propertysecrets .net /article /czech _up _we _take _the _pulse _of _one _of _central _europes _most _dynamic _economiesand _find _its _booming /1759 .html Further to Simon Blakebroughs challenge that he'll buy anyones unit in Romania off them, i'd like to issue the same challenge for anyone who wants to sell their unit in the Czech Republic - i'll buy them. The problem with trying to buy in second tier CZ cities like Ostrava is getting the deals in the first place, as typically there is not much supply on the market and they sell out quickly. Regards Simon.

apologies if my earlier post sounded a bit grumpy - bad day. but the merits of ostrava/brno apart, it is because i rate PS's analysis so highly that i'd be interested in their views on which deals they would have done differently if they had their time again. the best organisations do engage in constructive self-criticism regularly. also, it would be helpful to identify potential weaknesses to even the most attractive markets. e.g. a border town can benefit but also suffer through its connection with neighbouring countries; some 3rd tier cities may show the highest price growth in a boom, but also the fastest declines in case of a recession - i've seen this in both UK and US markets in the past. unlikely though it is, it would be helpful to know which locations might be most vulnerable to any generalised recession across the CEE. surely it makes sense to examine the downside as well as the upside. dan

I haven't looked through the forum in detail, therefore I am not familiar with Simon Blakeborough's challenge, but PS are aware that I need to sell my unit in Quadra Place. So Simon can you contact me ?

paul, please do keep us posted as to what happens with this. it will be very helpful in knowing how to take PS articles in future. simon's challenge is in his article 'romanian fairytales', currently on the main page of the PS website. dan