Real Estate / Refusal for a mortgage in Poland [18]

Interest rates aren't going up in Poland any time soon and in fact the new government will try to cut them early next year if they get their way, so its a good time to get a loan or mortgage (and use the low rates to pay down as much as possible in the next couple of years, rather than overstretch and stump for a larger mortgage). You can approach a loan adviser to save you running around all of the banks. You will have to add maybe 1% to the value of the loan as their fee, but they will do all the leg work for you and save you having to make official requests at banks, as these will go against you at the checking phase if you have taken too many applications.

Real Estate / BEST Poland's city to Invest in?? Warsaw, Wroclaw, Krakow, Poznan, Gdansk or...? [34]

If you are looking for higher yield and prepared to get hands on with your investments, then you can pick up some bargains in smaller towns. Yes there is less liquidity but also you are not competing with as much foreign capital as is the case for prime locations in Warsaw, Wroclaw etc. When I say prime location its important to state it means physical location, not the quality or finish of the unit or flat you are looking to rent out (in fact its better to avoid upper end flats in smaller towns). We started investing in Poland over 10 years ago and began in towns with populations of not more than 100,000. Here you can often get yields of 10% or more, especially if you are prepared to get your hands dirty, by that I mean get involved with the day to day running and maintaining of the investment. And sticking with only prime locations, means you can still pick your tenants to some extent, which means you can avoid problem tenants. In smaller towns, average earnings tend to be lower, which means the ability for tenants to save for a rainy day is reduced and so the greater likelihood of default on rent. As I say, you can avoid this by choosing your tenants well, spending some time on background checks. We found sticking to properties by or very close to the town square with multiple units (at least 5 or 6, mix of shop and residential, but avoiding office space), we could pick up investments at decent rates per metre, yet with yields of sometimes double figure per annum. The main drawback in these smaller towns is the lower liquidity. When buying this helps you to get a lower price, but when selling you need to be prepared to wait 12-18 months for a sale if you are not prepared to negotiate on price. But as long as its prime location, you will be able to sell it. We always listed properties for sale fully or almost fully let, they always went much quicker.