Real Estate / I have just recently bought a house in Poland... [20]

A close friend of mine recently bought an apartment in Krakow. To save on conversion rates in Poland they actually took the cash with them to Poland.

300,000 PLN !!!!!!!!

Real Estate / Selling commercial property in Poland [22]

Savvan,

You're welcome to email me further details. I will see if I can help.

Real Estate / Advice on what Polish city to invest in.... [101]


Nick,

There is so "sure bet" when it comes to property investing and if a sales man tells you the opposite then start walking in the opposite direction.

Krakow (along with Warsaw) is one of Poland's primary cities for property.

If you buy in September you'll be buying into a market that has grown phenomenally over the last few years so don't expect any bargains. However, prices are continuing to rise so you can still make money. I don't know your budget but the Old Town is ridiculously expensive but frustratingly the best place to buy. Investors are now starting to look at the areas south of the Old Town, across the river.

Another possibility is to buy something small near the university to rent out to students.

I don't know much about Poznan except that it hasn't enjoyed the spectacular price growth of Krakow and Warsaw and that alone makes it a better prospect (although it does lack the sexiness of those two cities).

Wroclaw would be an excellent choice. Lots of foreign investment pouring in. I believe LG Philips have signed a contract to open a plant nearby. The Old Town has been beautifully restored and with Wroclaw also being a university town then student tenants are again a possibility. It's also popular with tourists-a lot of Germans like to visit and get misty eyed at their lost slice of the Fatherland.

Gdansk and the Tri City in general is also a good prospect. A lot of Westerners don't realise how high the prices already are in this part of Poland as it doesn't attract the same kind of attention as other places.

Another option is the holiday resort town of Zakopane. The one thing holding it back in my opinion is the lack of road infrastructure surrounding the town (it's a national park after all). If the government can find a way of getting round this then I expect prices will rocket.

Travel / Krakow hotels [29]

Szarlotka,

Ever stayed at the Polonia Palace ? I stayed a night there over a year ago and was blown away by the place..........especially the restaurant.

Travel / How do Poles Spend their Summer Holidays? [8]

tut tut Grzegorz

Real Estate / Advice on what Polish city to invest in.... [101]

Litigate,

I have a good contact based in Gdynia who has extensive knowledge of the Tri City market.

If you email me then I can pass your details onto her.

Real Estate / Advice on what Polish city to invest in.... [101]

The company she works for has a website but as a real estate broker she has a large amount of independance from this company. I'm happy to provide you with all the contact details but would prefer you to email me (or I email you) as I don't want to abuse the forum by advertising companies on it. My email address is info@spiritusagency.com

Mods, if I am out of line then please correct me.

Real Estate / buy off the plan in tri-city [25]

John,

Hope your meeting was productive with Dagmara earlier today. I'll be arriving in Gdansk
next Wednesday for a short vacation but will probably miss you as I'm heading straight to the Kaszuby lakelands. Are you still at the Grand ?

Law / Trying to do business with Polish businessmen... but it's not easy. [41]


Brian,

You have my sympathy !!

I've made the same observation and it really is infuriating. It makes no difference if you communicate with them in English or Polish. I guess some Polish business people are quite content with their "lot" .

Real Estate / Apartment Prices in Sopot [18]

Yeah but maybe Patricia is better looking.

Law / Trying to do business with Polish businessmen... but it's not easy. [41]

No, you are not the only one :)

It really is so frustrating. I've lost count the number of times I've had to cool my interest in different ventures simply because the Polish company couldn't be bothered to pursue my enquiry. The crazy thing is they would make money from any such venture.

The only reason I can think of is that Poland is still a relatively new democracy and capitalism is still in it's infancy over there.

Life / The Polish custom of the promenade [4]

Italy being a prime example. I fondly remember my holidays in Sorrento :)

We just don't have an equivalent here in the UK :(

Real Estate / Apartment Prices in Sopot [18]

as well ?

Travel / canoeing/kayaking in Poland [13]

Hi Bubba,

I've just come back from a 4 day trip to the Kaszuby lakeland in Northern Poland. From reading this forum I think you spend a lot of time in the Tri City and it only took me and my friend just over 45 mins to reach our summer house from Gdansk airport.

I'm surprised you've found it difficult to find somewhere to kayak in Poland because if anything I believe Poland has better water sports facilities than we have here in the UK. I think the main difference is that Poland doesn't market it's "leisure infrastructure" the way that other countries seem to do.

The Kaszuby area is pockmarked with hundreds of lakes of various sizes so you can choose whatever suits you.

The Mazury area offers even more lakes for the kayaking enthusiast and that isn't all too far from the Tri City either.

If you need any help just drop me a line.

I'll be posting a few pics of my time in Kaszuby in the "Vacations" thread once I've caught up on some sleep.

Travel / Krakow hotels [29]

Telefonitika,

What is your price budget per night and do you have a preference for which area in Krakow ?

Life / WHY IS POLAND SO DIRTY ???? [44]

I spend a lot of time in Poland and find it to be much cleaner than the UK. That doesn't mean it is spotless and yes, there are places where it is dirty but to start a thread entitled "why is Poland so dirty ?" is misleading in my opinion.

The beaches are clean. No crisp packets or beer bottles as in Blackpool. The water is crystal clear unlike other UK coastlines.

When I walk through Polish cities I don't see chewing gum all over the pavement.

On my most recent visit to Poland I spent a lot of time visiting many Polish lakes and walking through forests and again I noticed how clean it was. I even commented to my girlfriend about it.

UK, Ireland / Is Any Polish communty in Manchester or London [18]

Hi Teng,

I live in Bolton and I can confirm there is a vibrant Polish community in the area. To me it seems that a lot of the young Poles who've come to the UK aren't particularly yearning to meet up with other Poles. Maybe as they get older they will start to warm to the idea of socialising together.

There are Polish social clubs in many Northern towns. Bolton used to have two up until a few years ago but now only has the club by the side of the Polish church.

In Manchester they have the Kolo Polskie on Cheetham Hill Rd and I'd bet there are a number of younger people who go there now. I also heard there was a Polish church in Manchester but I can't remember where :(

londynek.net is a good website where Poles from London & Manchester chat about upcoming events etc.

Law / Trying to do business with Polish businessmen... but it's not easy. [41]

I've had the same experiences. :(

It really is baffling as I am the one offering to pay for their service or buy their products so it's a "win win" situation for them.

This behaviour can't be excused on the language barrier as often I will write to them in Polish.

Real Estate / Advice about Lubuskie region? [12]

Hi Househunt,

This isn't a place to be coy ;) What budget are you looking at ? Maybe some of the forum members can point you in other directions ?

Travel / Trips and Nights in Gdansk / Sopot [30]

Chillichilli,

Paintballing, quad biking, even golf ! The Tri City has all of these things. I've just typed "paintballing gdynia" into Google and got a lot of results.

Just stumbled across a website that might interest you Chillichilli.

In Gdansk there is a pirate ship where they serve on board meals/drinks etc. It might appeal to your group.

It's also possible to charter the whole ship-it's not cheap about £ 450 an hour.

Travel / Visiting Sopot this summer? [36]


Lef,

I've just taken a look at BubbaWoo's website and to be honest I don't think his prices are unreasonable. For an apartment in a central location in high season I don't think you can get an equivalent apartment for much less.

Perhaps you are looking at monthly rental figures for long term lets and expecting to pay those kind of rates but only for 3-4 weeks. Afraid you might have to pay "tourist rates". :(

Travel / canoeing/kayaking in Poland [13]


You're right Angela. I've been too lazy to post them but I'll do it this weekend I promise.

Sheesh, I can't get away with anything on this board :)

Travel / Visit to Kazimierz Dolny , Poland [14]

Hi Baki,

It's a beautiful little town. If you check the "Photos from Poland" post in this Vacations thread you will see a photo I took when I was last there.

It's no more expensive than any other Polish town. Although it is a tourist area it's mostly Polish tourists who visit so prices are not high.

The market square is small but very charming and there are many nice walks in and around the town.

There's an English language website here kazimierz-news.com.pl/wersjaa.html

Real Estate / Buying new buildings in Poland and price I was given [42]

Fiona,

I'd like to know more please.

Can you email me ? Click on my profile for my email address.


Good post Most however I feel the property market and stock market aren't always fuelled by logic.

House prices in the UK should have stopped rising a few years back based on logic. Young people on good wages simply can't afford to get on the property ladder.

Poland still has some way to go I believe. Logic dictates that Warsaw and Krakow should see a slow down in prices whether reality reflects that I do not know.

There is still a lot of value and upside to invest in Polish property.

Commercial property hasn't really been tapped into yet and there is scope for growth.

Land is still relatively cheap and offers strong long term gains for the small investor and stronger short term gains for the bigger investors.

It could be argued that the superstars of the Polish property market may be losing their shine there are still other towns that haven't shared in the success story. Towns in the tertiary market such as Gliwice, Katowice, Lublin etc

UK, Ireland / Anybody knows how to watch Polish channels in UK? [36]

Hi Malwa,

Instead of Yellow Pages look in your local papers in the trade ads. There must be some local companies who do satellite installations.

There are two (maybe 3) ways to receive Polish channels in the UK.

1/ Buy a Polsat decoder box in Poland. You can also but the dish there but it might be easier to simply buy the box in Poland and the dish over here. You will need to be a Polish resident to subscribe to their service but I got my friend to do it for me and I pay them the annual subscription when I see them each summer. For this you get 30-40 Polish channels of which only about 7 are worth watching. I pay around £ 7 a month

2/ Buy a "Free to air" decoder box and dish over here. Once you've paid for the hardware then it's free to watch any channels it receives. You can get Polish channels on Free to Air but the selection was limited when I had it. I could only get around 5 Polish channels and every so often the frequency would change for them which meant having to scan the network to try and find them on their new frequency.

3/ Buy a decoder box and a pirate card-think it might be called a Dragon card.

UK, Ireland / Anybody knows how to watch Polish channels in UK? [36]

you're welcome

Travel / Polish Airports and Air industry are pathetic [32]

I agree with clunkshift. If I had to choose between an airport the size of Manchester and Gatwick or Liverpool and Gdansk then I'd choose the latter every time.

I find it less stressful being able to park my car directly in front of the terminal building rather than getting lost in one of the enormous multi storey car parks that the larger airports offer.

Check in is straight forward and a few steps away and I'm at passport control and then the departure lounge....easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I agree the airports can be overcrowded at times but this is more down to the massive increase in the number of Poles flying rather than poor airport design. As someone said before Poland will gradually improve it's airports it just takes time.

Comparing Polish airports to Frankfurt airport is like comparing apples and pears. Frankfurt is one of the world's major airport hubs !