Real Estate / Is there a Real Estate bubble in Krakow? [60]

My wife an I have been searching the estate market in Kraków for several years. I do believe that we have finally come to the point of buying our home in Kraków this coming summer. We can not wait to buy and move back home.

Janek od Kraków

Real Estate / Kraków Mortgage in US dollars [5]

Many thanks Grzegorz and Marek,

Sorry for writing back so late. Anyway, I find that the mortgage agents--those that work for you to secure the loan to be rather mysterious/vague to information about the loan process. We have to loan officers and both seem to be ok but when I ask specific questions the answers are always too vague for me.

Janek

Real Estate / Buying a flat in Krakow; prices are still falling? [200]

You are right on the money. My wife and I have just come back from Krakow and spend two weeks shopping for our apartment. We have waited and re-shopped for the past three years to see how this market changes in Krakow. Again, your are correct as the sellers are still in denial in the prices that they try to still sell their flats at. Again you are correct as the agents do not want the buyers to bid low on a flat that is too expensive. We did manage to put in an offer but it was our price that we wanted to offer as both the agent and the seller were trying to have us offer at a higher price. A good item to do is to price every flat out at the per meter price. Another interesting point is that there are some new developments in town for example--kremerowska-residence that is newly built and still has that 2007 has that per meter price at around 15,000 zloty. That was still amazing and crazy as this is not Paris!

Janek

Real Estate / Should I buy a Free Hold apartment in Kraków? [10]

No, our agent called the apartment a "Freehold". So, what you are saying is that it may actually be a "Lease Hold" and the agent does not know the actual terminology? Ok, great, and thanks that was helpful from all of you on this site. We have three apartments in our choices and that one with the so called "Free Hold/Lease Hold" will be not considered.

A side question--how does an apartment ever become a "Lease Hold" in the first place and who would ever want to buy into this format?

Janek

Real Estate / Is this a bad time to buy an apartment in Poland? [142]

But the high end units are still out of reach and way too expensive. Who can afford this?

Janek

Real Estate / Is this a bad time to buy an apartment in Poland? [142]

I just want to know who can afford those expensive apartment in Krakow that go at around 15,000zl per m2. I think that these per metre prices are absolutely insane.

On another note, how can I find the owner of a unit? I have found a unit that my wife and I are considering but the estate company will not communicate/negotiate with the seller about the price. And so, I want to talk to the owner myself. Any ideas? The seller does not live in Poland.

Janek

Real Estate / Is this a bad time to buy an apartment in Poland? [142]

Hi D,

That is true that the main sqaure has the most expensive per metre prices. However, I have found that there are many units outside the sqaure with very high per metre prices: Kremerowska-Residence, the units on Piłsudskiego and the units on Kopernika--Parkside Residence.

Janek

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

I can see that prices have fallen, but the price change is very slow to to see from the seller to the buyer. The prices still seem very high. I mean, who can afford some of these places?

Janek

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

The price per metre might be a medium but it is an unrealistic price per meter when you actually try to bid on a unit. They are actually closer to 8000-9000 per metre in center Krakow.

Janek

Real Estate / Poland's flat rental agents and the anger they brew in me.... [60]

I am going to post a reply on my own agent
s behalf. My wife and I recently purchased an apartment in krakow last week after a long and exhausting four year search. We have an extraordinary honest agent that has undertaking our renting of the apartment. There is no way that we could take care of all of the tasks that are required to take care of this rental project. We are not currently in Krakow. How could someone rent an apartment and do all that is necessary without an agent. It is not possible. I think that there are many fine agents in Poland. It is just a matter of searching fore the right one.

Janek

Real Estate / Poland's flat rental agents and the anger they brew in me.... [60]

Well, we have a 102 m2 apartment for rent in Krakow. About 5 minutes to the main square. It is on the second floor with so much sun that you will need to wear tanning lotion! It has a living room, two bedrroms, with a kitchen and dinning area and back balcony.

Janek

Real Estate / Poland's flat rental agents and the anger they brew in me.... [60]

I have an apartment for rent in the center of Krakow--102 m2/2nd floor/three rooms
Janek
P.S. My management company is Home Express. Here is the link:
oferty.net/mieszkanie-na-wynajem-krowoderska-krakow-stare-miasto,1500355138

I am the owner and Home Express is our agent in charge. A very good company,

Life / Streaming online Polish TV [85]

Can you watch US tv in Poland?
Janek

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

In May, we just bought an apartment in city center of Krakow. It is for rent currently. I am the owner...Polish... I will negotiate the rental price....102m2

Anyway, the prices since my wife and I started to search over the past five years have dropped. But it was a drop that took a long time and varies according to seller. Will it continue to drop? Possibly but like many on this site suggest, the units have been pulled off of the market and this is really what is happening here. They won't drop any further and the units will stay unsold because the owners can afford to keep them unsold and it is a status to own an apartment. Plus, even if they can not afford to let them stay vacant, we Poles are stubborn to the end degree.

My unit is on Home Express web page. We just reduced the rental price today.
Janek

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

of course prices can still drop but that will be by individual units and adding the larger developers. The developers will drop the most. The individual sellers are a different issue.

Real Estate / Buying a flat in Krakow; prices are still falling? [200]

Hello Maluch,

Many have posted to you since you wrote. My wife and I bought an apartment this past May. Here is our friend and agents name whom you should go to. You can trust him that he will work for you very hard. Make sure that you give him my name--Jan Blacha.

Kierownik Zespołu
Tomasz Myśliwiec
kom. 506 000 821
hen.pl
Home Express
ul. Pijarska 9/5A
tel: 12 433 51 24
fax:12 433 51 39

Another agent that you can try is Dominika Stanek at Neodom. She was a previous agent of ours and very good.

Both agents are trustworthy and will work hard for you.

Janek
janblacha@poczta.wprost.pl

Hi Maluch,

Now on everything else.

Have property prices fallen? Yes they have. Will they go lower in my opinion? Maybe, but at this point the good units may be sold first. But these apartments are still out there. Some have been taken off of the market but new ones come on every day. However, the market is stagnant and nothing if moving on a larger scale. My wife and I started looking nearly 5 years ago. We went through the years before the market rise, during the height of the prices and the fall of the market. We looked at nearly 150-175 units! The agents on the most part have a small window of patience and want a person to buy within their own time-frame. Normally, they will try to tell you what apartment they think is good. You could find an apartment within a year. Our problem was that we were buying a place to live full time and both my wife and I had to agree on a unit. I could have bought in a year

The next item would be if you are buying on mortgage or cash. Once you have a property in mind, you can do the transaction in 1-2 days. Be sure to have a Polish bank account.

Janek