No problem.

As I said I could have probably sold for higher, but given 100% exposure to the currency and opp cost of closer to home deals I'm happy enough and wanted to get out asap.

Luckily I bought in the 1st phas so will take a little profit out!

Yes full kitchen fit-out and parking although it was a ground floor apt which sells for less (although it did have a big garden).

I had my unit valued at 509,000PLN in Jan 08 by my bank Millennium.

At 400,000PLN current valuation are we looking at a 21% fall.

Would we say that is representative of the Warsaw market? I though flats had fallen 10-15% from peak which was even later than the valuation I had (say mid 08).

Cheers.

Hi Tom,

500+ seems v high to me, especially when you consider CEE are usually conservative! Was this for a mortgage and actually used when the finance ltv was worked out?

This is some info my sales agent provided me with back in May, which you may find useful:

"both, the sale and the rental markets are stagnant at the moment. Regardless what we do, we may not push the buyers to conclude the transactions. The mortgage market is difficult, besides there is the Polish press not helping the market as they predict further drops in the property prices. Of course the question may be asked where the people live, as they do not buy and do not visibly rent. The answer is that people rent but the supply of the rent apartments is so immense that there is the feeling that there is a limited action on the rental market, too. Foreign investors, who have purchased the apartments in the peak of 2007 with the main idea to resell before completion, are now forced to complete the purchases and rent the apartments. Therefore, there are many new, nicely finished and furnished apartments on the market.

The additional to the above issues stopping the sales (difficulties to obtain mortgage, expectation of the further reduction of the prices) is the governmental program to help young marriages to buy first apartments introduced recently. The program embraces new apartments sold up to the certain price (7180 PLN/m2), the government pays half of the mortgage interest rate for such purchases. As the developers have difficulties to sell, they lowered their prices to the above level to use the program. It means that many buyers if they want to buy and use the program are forced to buy from the developers (not from the private seller as you), second thing is that due to the above the prices drop further (as 7180/m2 is quite a bargain price). Therefore, if you want to sell now, we may play with the price, but it may appear that due to the above there is no sale anyway. If it is possible for you, probably the best in the current situation is to wait with the sale for the improvement of the general economic situation what will cause the improvement on the property market, too. "

Hope this helps,
MArk

Hi,

Regarding my trip to Warsaw, I am considering asking a local agent to recommend deals to me in Warsaw. Apparently they will not take a commission from me for purchases in the primary market, so I am assuming they take a commission from the developer.

Do you think there would be any advantage in approaching the developers directly rather than going via the agent, or will I be offered the same price either way?

I guess the agent will be keenest to introduce me to those developers which pay them the highest commission.

Hi Minsk

It's difficult to be sure you will get impartial advice, I would use your existing letting & management agents as hopefully they will want to recommend something that is popular with the local market and therefore will be easy for them to rent. You can then consider the prices and quality of the different developments you see within this criteria.

For example a 'local agent' might show you something that is cheap because it is in a less popular area, probably difficult for the developer to sell so more commission offered to the 'local agent' to shift the units, if you are not very aware of the different areas it could seem a good deal to you, but will not be.

If you don't have a good existing management agent I would recommend L&L, I now use them for all my Polish properties, I am sure they would give you impartial advice & particularly if they were going to look after the rentals for you.

I don't think I can give proper contact details here but you can find me very easily on google & I can put you in touch with the right person.

HTH Antony Tilney

Can't recommend L&L highly enough either..... professional, efficient, speedy, emails always get answered immediately.