Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]


UK prices have in some regions gone from bonkers to stark raving mad (not all areas perhaps but many).

News / Polish Pope, John Paul II has been canonized today [with John 23rd] [85]


That's because I know Catholic folk I speak with don't accept the reports as true if they implicate JP, they call it evil lies. I tend to think it is likely to be untrue or a massive exaggeration. If it were true, it would make a mockery out of everything, and I can't believe billions of Catholics around the world are gullible. I'm not posting this to be a disagreeable knob, it's my honest opinion. If my opinion is wrong then it's wrong, but it's my honest feeling on the matter.

News / Polish Pope, John Paul II has been canonized today [with John 23rd] [85]


I'm not sure I believe it, although I would share your anger if it were so. I think it is very unlikely, common sense says that a world full of Catholic folk would not adore JP if there was any real substance to such accusations. It smacks of some quarters trying to divide and rule, because JP was a great inspiration to Poles in fighting the dark days of Communism and the grey suits don't like unified people because unity equals strength. As soon as non-believers become the majority, they'll probably stage a spiritual hoax of some kind to split that group up too. :) I don't know who the grey suits are btw, it's just a figure of speech that could stretch to various VIs.


Strangely enough, exactly what I had been thinking last weekend. Great minds perhaps!

Law / Registration of right hand drive cars in Poland - possible? [82]

Has the law now been changed?

I ask because I have noticed a small but definite increase in the quantity of UK registration plates and right-hand drive cars in Wroc over the past few weeks. Initially I thought it was a fluke, but seems quite a few here. Of course, it could be UK-based Poles back just for Easter and May 1, but it might be the law change and dealers or new buyers.

News / Polish Pope, John Paul II has been canonized today [with John 23rd] [85]


With all due respect, I find it very hard to believe anyone would really do that. I suspect that there's some anti-Catholic or anti-pope propaganda out there, for whatever reason. And I say that as a non Catholic and pantheist. I reckon that some people or groups like to divide and rule, and so if they can divide the cohesion within a group, whether it's a religious group or just those who think Mr Bean is the greatest comedy show on Earth (as if, it's utter tripe) then they put stuff out there to make people leave the group in disgust. Whilst I'm no big fan of organised religion, I suspect a lot of it is utter b0llo)(.

Real Estate / Are Mortgage brokers licenced in Poland? Can anyone become an real estate agent? [18]


I don't know how they survive, they must be either very rich already and lazy, or starving due to their sales shortcomings. And if these are the licensed agents, what can we expect now that agents no longer need a licence (deregulated since Jan).


Nice website, a lot of hard work has gone into it, I hope it is a success for you.

Work / Job offer from IT Giant in Katowice, Poland (UNIX specialist). Information on tax and rental costs needed. [65]


A mere trifle. What's not to like.


Sounds like some parts of Hertfordshire. Having been to Kat, can't say I noticed any particularly dodgy elements. People seemed friendlier than here actually, although I am not of dark skinned appearance (am more of unappealing white pasty appearance)

Life / Food wastage in Poland households [6]


It is also especially important with soft cheese including cottage cheese



because cottage cheese if past its best can make you rather ill, just like cream cheese can. In fact, cottage cheese should be kept at 5C at most and once opened it should preferably be used within 24 hours.

Work / Job offer from IT Giant in Katowice, Poland (UNIX specialist). Information on tax and rental costs needed. [65]


You're welcome, I hope my small input was of use. I value Dominic's thoughts because he has shedloads of experience here and knows the market, and has probably done the math(s) for you. However, in my opinion if you wanted to 'do Poland', it's a stonking (terrific)) offer that they've made. They must rate you very highly. If it were me, I'd rather be appreciated in Poland for good money than just another dude in another country for better money. Poland's a special place, Katowice almost certainly has plenty of churches if you are religious, and as a country it's rich in history (of course, some of it hideous and scarring but much of it richly interesting and beyond average).

I can tell you this, I sure wish I'd continued my career in SCO-Linux admin back in the 90s. I'd not be struggling as I am now here!

We're all made up of optimists and pessimists in life. Hence the bulls & bears of the stock market and every other commodities or asset trading environment. Each of these would claim to be the realist. The reality is, to some extent, what you make of it. Whether here or somewhere else, I'm sure we all wish you well.

(Btw, the summers here are very hot! Hotter than typical for the UK for sure.)

Work / Job offer from IT Giant in Katowice, Poland (UNIX specialist). Information on tax and rental costs needed. [65]

I too don't approve of non Poles getting jobs that Poles could do. However, it probably the case that many Poles with this skill have gone to Germany or Eire to earn a lot more there instead of locally in PL. Perverse but probably true.

Work / Job offer from IT Giant in Katowice, Poland (UNIX specialist). Information on tax and rental costs needed. [65]


You sound very optimistic. Methinks you just landed another proofreading contract :P

Work / Job offer from IT Giant in Katowice, Poland (UNIX specialist). Information on tax and rental costs needed. [65]


Dominic knows a lot about Poland and employment, and much more than I know. However, 14K (or 14tys in Polish) sounds like good money for Poland. Your apartment rental (always haggle 20% off if you can, and negotiate the agent commission fee down 30-50%) will probably be 1500-2000PLN for something good, or 2500PLN for something extra good. If I had 14K coming in before tax each month I'd be jumping for joy here. Many Poles make do on 2K. The majority earn 4-5K. As an IT person specialising in Unix, it's not impossible that someone somewhere else will offer you more, but 14K is a good introduction to Poland IMHO. Lucky boy!

Work / Irish guy moving to Warsaw looking for work ( currently in Marketing sector ) [18]


And that can be for 2 reasons: Reason 1 is the teacher is told payday's the end of the month or the 10th, and then some sort of tax or other glitch is claimed and pay is postponed until the next month and so on. Sometimes 3 months until payday, sometimes never. Reason 2 is the supposed audition lesson or trial lesson or demo lesson. Here, the dufus is told he or she must do this lesson to demonstrate he or she can teach adequately. No pay is offered. Yet, the students will have paid the school either the usual fee or very close to it. Of course, some demo lessons might be genuine but from what I hear they're quite often just a way to scam native speakers to give the school (or company) a freebie. Companies quite like these too, because the proper schools won't do freebies but desperate for a job newbie natives will often agree to it in the hope it's going to lead to becoming the company inhouse tutor. Oh, they've a lot of dirty tricks up their sleeves in the big cities, doncha worry!

During my time here, I've seen other natives try the very same ideas for businesses that I thought of years back and failed to get off the ground. I never tell them I tried it and failed because I know that it could just be me. But, each of them tried and failed too, and went back to other things or went elsewhere. Those that are doing OK here usually have networking connections not through the (in my experience) useless job networking websites but through inlaws or other expats with businesses. It's hard to gain traction knocking on the door cold. Not impossible (as I have managed it to a modest extent) but very, very difficult and it took me ages to break in. And I am light years away from any sort of profit margin that won't make people back in the UK laugh or pity me.

Work / Irish guy moving to Warsaw looking for work ( currently in Marketing sector ) [18]

There are quite a few workplaces whose language is English, but without a specific skill in IT then you might struggle. On the other hand, you might get lucky.

English teaching is increasingly competitive as more natives come over, driving wages down. Be wary of schools that don't pay wages on time, and also those schools that ask people to do free trial lessons -- sometimes it's a legitimate request but some schools just take the p and do it regularly to many hopefuls while coining it from paying students. A lot of this has been discussed before, do a search and also see https://polishforums.com/uk-ireland/poland-irish-married-woman-considering-moving-63894/.

In conclusion, you might get work teaching for quite low pay or decent pay, or you might get lucky and find something paying well and in a real firm. Hope for the best, but perhaps expect it to be difficult for some time.

Real Estate / Are Mortgage brokers licenced in Poland? Can anyone become an real estate agent? [18]

I must echo the poor experiences, so much so that it totally put me off dipping my toe in the water to buy a house. Most incredibly, some agents get very rattled if you don't sign their buyers' document before even viewing something. But thankfully most don't even ask. Agents seem totally disinterested if someone doesn't buy immediately. Very little attempt made to get the buyer to buy something else on their books. Worst of all, agents promise to stay in touch but seldom bother (both on lettings and sales). I have seen a great deal of amateurishness here with agents.

News / Little statistics about immigrants in Poland. Employment and job prospects. [25]


Be wary of gauging an economic situation as "better" in a low interest rates environment. I see people who have borrowed to open a little shop. Unemployment is still high, contracts are still temporary for many financial sector workers, trade is very quiet for some professions.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

It's hard to know what the chances are because there are many factors that can take us by surprise, such as in the UK where the government started to guarantee mortgages. Price discovery can be difficult in a low interest rate or lax lending environment, for however long these things last.

They have built a lot of apartments here, I'm unsure as to why. I assume they're expecting to house workers for some of the multinationals here. Some of the apartments are priced not far from 'almost realistic' (except if interest rates rise considerably, then these prices will look very premium) and some apartments are priced as if they expect the occupants to be very rich foreign buyers. It is hard to imagine why they think that so many executive apartments in that spot could find a buyer but I assume they did some homework before building. I'll be truly fascinated if they sell more than a few apartments there, or actually any.

This is a case in point: Brits in Spain selling a villa for Euro87K, bought 13 years earlier. A financial disaster, the article suggests. (Originally valued at Euro250K)

uk.finance.yahoo/news/250-000-spanish-villa-sold-070633166.html

After 13 years living in the south of Spain, the couple returned home in 2012. Their three-bed villa in Almayate, near Malaga, was initially on the market for €250,000 (£206,000). It eventually sold for just €87,000 (£71,500). They have moved back to the Plymouth area, where they lived before moving to Spain.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]


My monitoring recently:

1 or 2 house sellers increased prices 4-5% after reducing over the past few years by 20-30%. Not sold of course.
One flat seller in a good street went to market at 360K January, reduced to 299K last week which is very good value for there. Still unsold.

Reasonable value flat unsold gaining a new agent every week, still unsold.
Some agents telling people certain areas here are "holding their value" despite my observations that prices are eroding down in those areas. All that's "holding" is the stubborn asking prices of sellers in those areas, month in and month out. Buyers are few if any.

News / Little statistics about immigrants in Poland. Employment and job prospects. [25]

Thank you, Monitor, that's interesting.

So, it must be Vietnamese people I'm seeing so much more often these days, not Koreans. Certainly a huge increase in the visibility of this community since I arrived a few years ago. I know there's also a considerable Korean community because special church services have been provided for them in some areas, I'm told. It would be nice to see more positive interaction between the communities. When I have attempted to chat to them in English, most have been shy about communicating and that can come across as unfriendliness. Of course, it could be that I just look and sound repulsive.

Life / What do people in Poland like to buy? Can bring things from USA. Making money in Poland. [7]

I frequent the secondhand clothes shops. The big waist men's trousers and jeans are often left until max discount day each week. Market may therefore be patchy at best.

Life / What do people in Poland like to buy? Can bring things from USA. Making money in Poland. [7]

Actually, 'peterweg' is in fact correct. The US were number 1 in the obesity league for a long time.

The UK is something like number 4 or 5. Poland is not even in the top 10, and my observation is Poles are in much better shape than Brits & Ams.

Life / Car test..The Polish equivalent of the MOT [36]

There was some ruling, and so Poland may have to start accepting UK cars. However, someone else here (probably Dougpol1) thought it likely that Poland would just accept a fine and continue to refuse to register RHD cars. I don't know if this will happen or not.

This news report says 'Poland will be forced' to allow RHD vehicles [warsawvoice.pl/WVpage/pages/article.php/27723/news]

Life / Car test..The Polish equivalent of the MOT [36]

Thanks Peter.

In the UK, if ever you get a car there, sans MOT is not usually good news. If the car has its road tax (VED, Vehicle Excise Duty) the offence is relatively minor for no MOT but I wouldn't advise having no MOT because sometimes insurers use that as an excuse not to pay a claim. However, in the UK that get out is not automatic, and the car may still be considered roadworthy and the insurer unable to wriggle away if there's an accident. If a car has no road tax, it can only be driven to a reasonably near test centre and back again. There are question marks about whether any other parking or stops can be made on the way, but a judge some years ago ruled in the motorist's favour when the police caught him in a petrol station buying a newspaper in a car with no road tax on his way to an MOT test. The fine for having no road tax is very large, but you can only buy it if you have a test pass certificate, a registration document, and verifiable insurance. When the road tax period exceeds the validity period of the test period, the offence of being on the road is serious but not as serious as not paying road tax. An MOT in the UK costs around 250 ZL for a car (varies as some garages do discounts), but is perhaps more detailed than the Poland test. Because some garages might fail a car just to make work for themselves, some drivers use independent test centres run by their local authority (local government) and there a car is tested with no partiality because they don't do any repairs and have no incentive to pass or fail anything. In my experience, however, such centres can be very thorough and very strict -- which is good if you want to be very safe, but not so good if they spot something to fail which another garage test centre inspector would not have not or simply thought good enough and tolerated.

(For any American readers, garage here means shop or workshop that repairs vehicles)

Life / Car test..The Polish equivalent of the MOT [36]


I know, and if the kerb or footpath is high enough then it can damage the suspension to park like that, even briefly. One wheel on and one wheel off parking is permitted on some UK streets, mostly in London, but the height of the footpath tend to be fairly shallow and the wheel on the footpath must not cross the line or asphalt section of the footpath. Where it's permitted, there is a sign to say so.

Anyway(s), back to topic. If anyone knows about buying sans MOT, please post. I've asked a couple of Poles I chat to offline and they are not at all sure because they always seem to be buying from main dealers or new.

Life / Car test..The Polish equivalent of the MOT [36]

What's the deal with a car that's bez przegład (no MOT, no roadworthiness test recently done and passed)

Talking to a Wrocław secondhand car dealer, he dabbles in used cars, lower end of the market, alright mate, she's a beaut, one careful lady owner only drove it to church on Sundays, mate.

The car has insurance for another 4 months. But it doesn't have a valid przegład. I don't know if it's failed or not had one done this year.

Any way of checking whether it had one done but failed? This assumes the dealer says it's "not had one done this year but should sail through no problem at all mate".

Any website that reveals all?

What happens if the car has no przegład -- I assume a fine (mandat) if stopped by the police, but can I take the car for its przegład as soon as I can get an appointment or would they need some piece of paperwork, such as a registration in my name, before they do the test? If a temporary registration is needed, where do I get it? The police or the vehicle office?

Best advice might be not to touch a car without its valid przegład, but it's useful to know what happens otherwise because there might be a genuine seller at some point.

Work / Australian looking to teach English in Poland [25]


Classic!


Yes, well spotted! It does seem like he's saying 20 ZL buys "a session" which he defines as up to 3 hours depending on his schedule. What a guy, he's obviously a very giving person!

Work / Australian looking to teach English in Poland [25]


Like I said, cheapest I've ever seen. Cheapest I saw previously was on a lamp-post ad for 30 per hour. Often the 30 an hour ads are fuill of English mistakes, leading one to conclude the person is either carefess or English isn't their subject after all. However, I had a quick look at the 20 bod above and seems his English is fine, albeit a small sample and me not being a professor to judge, but anyway! I can only imagine that he tried for 30 or even 25 and got little by way of response. From what I hear, things are dismal.

Law / Poles going to live in the UK or elsewhere and their tax residency status? They pay tax to Poland? [15]

Thank you for replying again, Jon.

The difference in the tax-free allowance between the two countries must make many Polish people gasp in disbelief when they arrive, even after adding in some of the disadvantages such as council tax, higher energy bills, high telecom costs, TV licences etc. Plus there's no need to pay national insurance on low earnings in the UK if self-employed (small earnings exemption) and on top of that 10K tax free income! No wonder the Poles I ask in the UK almost always reply "Return to Poland? Hahaha What?! Never. Maybe when I retire, but probably never."

Work / Australian looking to teach English in Poland [25]


Getting worse...here's a native speaker's ad, and it's the cheapest price I've ever seen: just 20PLN per hour (previous lowest ever was 30)