Buying/Selling distressed property in Poland/ Walk away from your mortgage

I decided to start this thread for one reason only to provide a forum for buyers and sellers of distressed property in Poland. There are plenty of foreigners who invested into the Polish real estate boom and are now caught in the negative equity trap- unable to make their mortgage payments and unsure what to do or just sticking their head in the sand. So we should start with one very important point - Investments can go up as well as down, therefore it is not about why/how or what information you where been given by the real estate agent at the time of buying, more importantly what are you going to do now ' sell and take the hit - move on with your life' or ' make the mortgage payments to the bank/lender' your first choice. If you wish to sell there are many expats/immigrants on this forum which may become your way out/exit.

So anyone ready to step up to the table?

Please note: this is NOT a thread for Real estate agents trying to offload their overpriced stock...

not exactly a queue to sell you properties for 10 grose on the zloty, or perhaps the desperation was over hyped.

Remember the "don't buy", you are better off renting advice from our regular sceptics, another who said that rents were strictly controlled in Germany. The population in Poland is stagnating and no new houses are needed.

Lets see what is happening to the stable, German property market:-

spiegel.de/international/germany/german-renters-pinched-by-rising-costs-and-decreasing-supply-a-875224.html

Come on Milky, share your wisdom. What sage advice can you give us for 2013.
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Poland isn't America. Most people own their house free and clear.

So the possibility of Swiss franc mortgage defaults must just be a myth !


You could offer your words of wisdom to the chap in the following link
askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=170790

My advice for what it's worth:
If you have negative equity and can't make the mortgage -
1.One way is to rent the place out, even if you ask for part of the money to cover the mortgage. This assumes you do not live in the property. You may then be able to find the rest of the mortgage yourself.

2. If renting the whole house is out - because you live there - you could ask the bank to reduce your monthly payments. They would rather have some payments than none. You could always get people to share with you - if that's an option.

3. If you don't live there, can't rent it out, and the bank won't reduce the payments - you are stuck. The only way out is to SELL and take the hit. This is the least attractive option.

4. If you have to sell - advertise on websites in your own country, maybe someone has enough cash and may see this as an investment. Even if you only get your money back - you can walk away - and it would have cost you nothing.

5. If you have no options - have to live in the house for your job - REDUCE your outgoings to the bare minimum.
6. If this is an option - ask the family to bail you out - just to keep the house going.

I'd say go ahead and walk away from the debt if you really have to. But don't be surprised if the bank comes after your10+ years in the future when your finances are better. This certainly happened to a friend of mine who had to pay off a decade old mortgage debt from the 1990's.

The advice from the other poster might be right, however commercial loans via a Ltd company can be walked away from be personal debt is very different. Another point hge ignored is the 'fronting a purchase for a friend'.. what does that mean - he has another property that can be seized and his friend will lose it??? And it sounds fraudulent.

What advice could I offer an investor. The only flats or houses I buy are to live in myself. I just build them and sell them (when the market is right), I do not organise finance.

My husbands father died 6 months ago and after a lot of traveling back and forth between the US and Poland we got he condo ready for sale. The condo has an offer but they are saying her needs to fly back again. Is there anyway that this sale can be done while he is in the US and the buyers are in Poland?

In theory yes, but the quickest, easiest and most probably cheapest way will be for him to go to Poland.

The safest way as well, if you gave power of attorney to a lawyer or distant family member, how would you ever know what the real selling price was?

If you inherit property and sell I am of the opinion you have to pay CGT in Poland if you have owned the property less than 5 years.