As you may have found out for yourself, over the last year the markets in Central & Eastern Europe remain sluggish and in my view will continue to be so in the near term. At least, for example, in the UK where sales are not exactly brisk rental yields and rental demand on the whole are quite healthy. Unfortunately in Central & Eastern Europe neither sales nor rentals are particularly hot at the moment.

The biggest problem still remains too much supply for the current demand. The second important factor is the continued restrictions in credit availability.

In the Czech Republic the market has just about found its bottom and will probably continue along the bottom well into 2011. Luckily interest rates are still very low and if this were to change to could severely hurt the market.

In Poland property prices, in the main, have continued to soften and supply remains a big issue. Whilst the medium term outlook has the potential to be rosy in Poland, short term things could be better.

Slovakia has a history of good growth quickly followed by overbuilding and stagnation. I don t see much positive change in the market for the time being.

Whilst Hungary is a place to watch the market still just has too many difficulties and reforms are not coming quick enough. Best avoided for the moment.

As I've stated many times in the past Romania is a mess and it seems will continue to be so for a number of years to come. If you've invested in Romania it s a case of salvaging what you can.

Similarly in Bulgaria there are many problems principally with oversupply and lack of finance. Prices are not going anywhere at the moment and the market is very disjointed. In Sofia, if you ve bought in the right location with a reasonable build quality you're probably going to do alright, unfortunately many people have bought in more marginal locations with poor infrastructure and in such instances it's a case of making the best of a bad job. In these poor locations there will be problems for years if not decades, the rest of the market in Sofia should perform well in the medium term but nothing is going to move until wider spread finance returns. In Sunny Beach and Bansko owners need to employ a professional management company (such as ours!) to get a much rent as possible in the short season available, the other option is to try to sell but prices are down around 50-80% on a typical purchase price from 5 years.

Simon Tweddle (CEO & Co Owner of Sim Property Group)