Travel / Is there a healthy expats scene in Poland? (drinks, food, golf, etc.) [143]


But its not black and white I came here as an expat and probably I'm now an immigrant - I know many people in the same position, not just Brits and americans but French, Italians, Germans and loads of Dutch etc.

Certainly I have no medium term plans to leave but I still often frequent "expat" places especially in Warsaw, mainly because the service is better.

I think you will find that many expats do speak Polish well and compared to immigrants I think you will get to know as much about Poland by running or growing a business there with your Polish colleagues than you will by spending your mornings teaching english to students and your evenings in badly ventilated pubs.

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

Maybe just do a google image search for klodzko powodz and you will see that it was certainly hard hit in both the 97 and 2010 floods

UK, Ireland / Irish, married to a Polish woman, considering moving to Poland - Rzeszow [11]

Life is good here if you can settle down but in your case finding work will be a huge issue and you must talk that through with your wife in a serious way. Rzeszow is a nice town but with very limited opportunities and if you dont speak Polish then you really only have one option - teaching English. Easy to get into but low pay and would be difficult to start a family on that.

Real Estate / Buying a farm in Poland [14]

I renovated a farm here myself and it was a great experience but a very long project (6 years) and also I had a flat to live in for the meantime and it was never intended as a main house. If you start then my tip would be to look around for off cuts of materials (e.g. we tiled our roof with second hand tiles we got from a plebania, used old doors from a lawyers office etc) and to find someone really reliable e.g.. in your girlfriends family.

If there is no running water or no central heating then before you buy maybe try living in a place with no heating for one week and decide if you have the stomach for that !

Travel / How expensive is it to live in Poland in one week? [28]

Cafe latte is indeed very expensive in Poland. On Friday I had a disgusting coffee in horrible surrounds at Poznan station - concrete floor, cold uncomfy seats - and this was in a newly built Starbucks ! Is it really a step up from the 90s when you could get a disgusting cup of po turecku for 1 zloty ?

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

Thing is that our predictions are generally happening. I lost my bet to Harry and offered to pay him out but I think he got banned for some other misdemeanour. But even though they were not 20 percent down they were 7 to 15 depending on town and the 20 percent is a matter of time.

I also predicted that German stocks would be a good short term investment and you mocked me for it - and now it's 28 percent up whilst almost every housing market in the world is down.

A few years ago I said housing prices would be down 30 percent by euron2012 - I missed it by a few months but in lodz, Wroclaw, gdansk that is coming true.

And yes I have got first hand experience of getting a big discount off asking price. I just closed at almost 30 percent below asking price on a commercial property.

There is no reason for the gift to intervene - and why should it ? If the govt has to pay people to buy a companys products then that is the very antithesis of the market.

The only responses to milky remain personal ones - that he is lazy, that avalon is considerably richer than he is etc.

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

If I were rich filth I would just walk into a few developers office, offer them what he thinks will fly e.g 15-20 percent less, leave his number and go for.a cuppa.. If he does that 5 times for sure he will get a bite, only proviso is that he should be ready with his funds to move quickly if someone says yes I.e. have his deposit ready and have identified a bank that will back him.

Law / Value of Zloty and UK £ in Poland [21]

A few reasons

- high demand for Polish bonds. Maybe misplaced optimism as the underlying deficit numbers are quite a concern but still probably safer than France not to mention Italy etc and a more liquid market than Czech or Hungary.

- often is quite a lot of strength in December as govt likes to support zloty in order to manipulate some ratios. Actually it did that far less this year. There is also a bit of a seasonal effect from migrants sending cash back in December which creates a demand for zloty.

- is still quite a lot of inward investment especially in the service sector. In addition lots of Western investors who would repatriate profits are now keeping them here as there is not much to invest in back home.

Most of my own banks have been telling me zloty is overvalued for about 2 months now but it has still kept appreciating steadily. If you want to wait for a good moment then once the next bout of nonsense starts in the US about fiscal cliffs that will weaken the zloty even if only for a few days - you could wait until then and you might get 5,05 instead of 4,95.

Real Estate / The current property boom in Poland is a bubble [342]

It is nonsense that a bubble can only be seen in hindsight. Plenty of people saw the internet bubble at the time and plenty of people saw the Polish housing bubble in 2008.

30% is not a managed decline - are there any other asset classes that have gone down so much over the past 4 years in Poland ? Internationally there are a few (e.g. Greek bonds).

There are plenty of bubbles that are visible now - Apple shares, gold prices, footballers wages, if you wanted some Polish examples then i would suggest the shares of LPP which at the moment cost about 5000 zloty each.

Real Estate / The current property boom in Poland is a bubble [342]

Price earnings ratio is 26x. That looks like a bubble to me.

Real Estate / Poland Real Estate 2013 -drops in offer prices, lack of liquidity indicate market crashing [39]

These people must work for very foolish companies - my own expat accomodation is PLN 5000 per month inc bills for very nice 200sqm and small garden. its not luxury but certainly as comfortable as I had in my hometown.

Real Estate / Poland Real Estate 2013 -drops in offer prices, lack of liquidity indicate market crashing [39]

its an end szerogowiec with a small annex built in the garden where my mother in law stays when she comes here :)

History / The Humble Beginnings of Empik in Poland [14]

Hard times for them at the moment - huge debts and falling sales. As well as the empik stores they also run a lot of clothing stores which have been dragging them down at the same time that Allegro became popular. They now have some new owners from Czech.

I hope they survive because they were one of the first stores in Poland to develop proper customer service in the 90s and be like a normal shop where you didnt have to go to loads of different counters.

Law / Companies public information in Poland [7]

There are no reliable free ones but there are some with fees starting around PLN 2000 e.g. Infoveriti.pl - worth it if you are going to make a big investment.

Work / Dutch speaker (native) experienced in Finance: job opportunities in Poland [63]

You are being unrealistic but go ahead and look for a job. Maybe they taught you about price elasticity of demand during your double masters ? It applies in the labor market, same as any other market and in Poland they are too many economics graduates at present.

For comparison the salary you want would be about PLN 9.000 gross. For PLN 10.000 I could get a Polish/English speaker with 3 years experience in a Big 4 firm. Which do you think I would choose ?

Work / Dutch speaker (native) experienced in Finance: job opportunities in Poland [63]

So you obviously have a different opinion to those of us who are experienced, so why not work through your agents and see what the best offer is. But as someone who employs lots of accounting staff i can assure you i would not pay more than 3500 zloty for an accounts receivable clerk.

You are comparing to cap gemini and microsoft but they are IT companies and ITstaff are having a moment in the sun in Poland, but theirnsalaries are already rising so much that they will soon he uncompetitive v bulgaria, romania, ukraine etc.

History / 70th Anniversary of Sikorskis Death (Newark) [30]


The Czechs still have 3 hectares of Hamburg until 2029 - there used to be a post office and a notary there but I think its just wasteland now ?

Law / Opening "Budke Gastronomiczna" [37]

Perfectly reasonable business idea but forget any idea of getting a grant for it.

I wouldn't worry too much about Sanepid and BHP, getting your certificates when you start might be a schlep but its unlikely that they would travel to a remote location to bother a single business owner who might not be open when they get there - they get their kicks by bothering big factories and supermarkets as they are the only people who pay the fines and give their inspectors a comfortable place to sit.

Rent for roadside place would be buttons - but 15sqm for 500 zloty is also a quite good rate in an old town - you are only going to need to sell 100 a month to cover it.

On main roads there are plenty of these places and I have to say when I am driving on business I often wish there was something other than kebabs - which I never touch even if I am drunk but they seem to be the default fast food in most of Europe now, I guess because of the margins.

If you mean the stretch of road from Bydgoszcz to Torun there are already quite a few bad eating options there interspersed among the hookers and the mushroom sellers.

Law / Jobs and Economic Status in Poland [64]

As for the general economic situation then is there a third option of medium but a few things to worry about. The argument here reminds me of 1980's Britian - it was either brilliant or terrible.

On the point re the OFE this is a naked dodge by Rostowski to get round the constituional caps on public debt. It follows similar moves about rates of translation of foreign currency debt and the year before that the extra dividends on KGHM (I'm an angry shareholder !), before that wasting valuable euro reserves to buy back zloty. Its July so he is probably cooking up his next scheme ready for rollout on December 30th.

The govt is doing reasonably well on the economy but I couldnt say they have done better than the PiS govt before them and if they dont address the deficit then a Hungarian situation could be waiting in a few years time.

Real Estate / Apartment damage and rental deposit in Poland [20]

easiest thing is to not pay your last months rent.

Have been on the other side of the equation though - had a tenant stop paying then ruin a flat causing me heavy losses. Not a lot you can do about it with the courts being so slow unless you are unemployed and have time to pursue it.

Life / What are the favorite (foreign) countries for Polish expats to live/retire? [22]

There are only a handful who can afford it - for them i would say Vienna, Switzerland, London, Paris and South of France most popular for tax and weather reasons plus flight connections.

Life / What are the favorite (foreign) countries for Polish expats to live/retire? [22]

No. If a pole emigrates and spends more than 183 days abroad he is not taxable in poland providing some other tests met. Plenty of very wealthy poles do this. As for polish structures there are some but it involves keeping your assets in poland and not everyone wants to do that.

Study / Top Warsaw university recommends remedial classes to new students [20]

But in this case aren't the universities correct ? if it's maths skills that are the issue then is a correct thing for them to pick up on - its not rote learning.

My anecdotal view as an employer is that language skills getting way better but maths skills of Polish graduates are shocking (even if the graduates come from a maths/economic background). Not sure if the UK graduates have better maths skills but for sure American ones do.

Work / Female Juris Doctor/Native American Speaker/Jobs in Warsaw [59]

Ajlawju

Could you send me a private message please - might have something of interest.

Would you be able to get a reference from Salans and a transcript from UF & Emory ?

By the way 80% of what is above is correct even if not presented in a very friendly way. As you look for work emphasize your good points of difference and I think you will get something - two good schools on your resume and an internship with a tough firm plus you speak Polish.

Work / Female Juris Doctor/Native American Speaker/Jobs in Warsaw [59]

Yes I did :) was not concentrating during my tea break !

Real Estate / I want to sell land in Poland (Bialka Tatrzanska) - any advice? [39]

At that price then maybe you have finally found Poland's natural gas reserves !

USA, Canada / Shipping large quantity of Polish vodka to the US [14]

Zubrowka is available in the states - has a different brand name there, called Zoo I think.

If anyone remembers that Swedish guy Danny who used to work in Sense he is working for Zubrowka over there in the US promoting the brand.

Law / I have recently been scammed in Poland. My company accounts frozen. [58]

Sean - one thing you should do is take your own lawyer to the bailiffs office with reasons why your creditor is at fault - make sure your lawyer is well prepared. If the bailiffs sniff hassle then they sometimes back away from a job or will ask for a small settlement.

Good luck - the courts here are hopeless so you have my sympathy

Law / Setting up small business in Poland? [191]

Its not mandatory but what delph is saying is that in practice without one your life will be a misery. This is correct !

Law / Setting up small business in Poland? [191]

You are looking at the section for non polish entities. But you will be a polish business and presumably want to deduct the vat on your rent and overheads.

Get a tax accountant to advise you of the specifics of your case.