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Posts by polishinvestor  

Joined: 28 Dec 2015 / Male ♂
Last Post: 24 Aug 2018
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Posts: 361

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polishinvestor   
15 Feb 2016
Life / If UK votes to leave the EU - what repercussions for British people living in Poland? [32]

EU and in particular Germany runs a trade surplus with the UK so a two way trade deal is in their interests. The UK will also be an even greater safe haven against stresses in the EU. Geography and a transparent legal system ensure London is the financial capital of the world, not so much because the UK is in the EU.
polishinvestor   
15 Feb 2016
Law / Business in Poland and Polish reality, How are you doing in Poland? [82]

The rosstech software is very good. Sometimes it directly indicates the source if the problem, other times it gives you an areas which need to be explored to locate the component causing the fault. Correcting paint is something Im quite good at and would love to do in spare time, but I dont have much of it sadly so I do just ours as and when. Average price for a whole car varies by who and where its done. People charge from 300zl to more than a grand per car sometimes.
polishinvestor   
15 Feb 2016
Law / Business in Poland and Polish reality, How are you doing in Poland? [82]

I owned a small auto repair service and tyre shop for a few years so I do have some experience here. It was dealing with day to day repairs for modern cars rather than classics, but yes labour can be cheap (some legally registered run and registered businesses can charge as little at 30zl/h labour in a small village and still make a little money on top). Quality of workmanship often can leave a lot to be desired although their own confidence in their own work is sky high! I do hear a lot of people doing work on classics cars transported from Germany. Work is done here in Poland then the cars return to Germany by transporter or under their own steam if able to. A friend of mine did a 60's Mustang last year as well as an early Ford Capri, both from Germany. If you have a keen interest and are able to do a lot of the work yourself, Id say its certainly a rewarding way to spend your spare time. As a business in a smaller town, Id say you have to have a technical understanding of the auto repair business otherwise you have no basis from which to appraise the quality of work done by your staff. The cost side is something you would have to learn quickly as you can very easily overpay for materials, even more so for labour. That all said there is a huge market for auto repair in Poland. The Poles like to import accident damaged cars from abroad and repair them here in Poland where its much cheaper. But, in a small town, your competition will often be a guy working illegally from his own home, often using materials bought cheaply that have been stolen from auto repair and body shops. So earnings might be quite modest.
polishinvestor   
15 Feb 2016
Law / Business in Poland and Polish reality, How are you doing in Poland? [82]

Im all for investing wisely and if you dont understand the markets then it is better to offer the reins to those that can possibly do a better job, but I prefer to take charge of that myself. Whether by in competence or something more sinister, I just dont trust such institutions to do a better job than me.

I have been in Poland for more than 12 years now, I oversee my familys investment in the country. I manage to get back 2 or 3 times a year. Its trivial things that you take for granted that I would miss most about the UK and society. The wheels turn more slowly in Poland on average and that can be frustrating sometimes (time is money is a foreign concept), but if everything here was the same as back in the UK then certain opportunities wouldnt present themselves.

If you are used to the attractions and benefits of a fast paced life in a big British city like London, the small village life in Poland will be a shock, but it certainly gets a lot more up to pace in the largest Polish cities.
polishinvestor   
14 Feb 2016
Law / Business in Poland and Polish reality, How are you doing in Poland? [82]

Crowdfunding at that level is passive investing. I have no control over my investment and I lose a slice of my return due to the structure of investment. Just the same as an investment fund in the stockmarket, you have no real control over where they are investing. I do invest in shares, but use EFT's and overweight/underweight sectors given my preference or view at the time. Generally when stuff is offered to the private investor or man on the street, it means banks wont touch them. Nobody is going to pass over a free lunch unless its rotten.
polishinvestor   
14 Feb 2016
Law / Business in Poland and Polish reality, How are you doing in Poland? [82]

You can buy units starting from a couple of hundred but these are going to be very small and probably not best locations and unlikely to draw a chain willing to sign up for a long term contract. 500 to 1 million + vat gives you more choice. zostanrentierem.com has a mix of properties across Poland and as far as an exercise in comparing price/size/yield/contract length its quite good to give you an idea of what to expect. You best bet would then be to approach local estate agents and tell them what you are looking for as commercials mostly tend to be sold through agents.

I used to do a bit of golf in the UK and a fair bit of tennis but that was years ago now. These days the kids give me my exercise and take up my free time since there is just the wife and myself, no family that can be relied upon so we tend to do things together or not at all.
polishinvestor   
14 Feb 2016
Law / Business in Poland and Polish reality, How are you doing in Poland? [82]

Outside the big cities retail/private rental yields tend to be a little lower since there are less people working, earning less and so less competition for living space. You can make it work in the best locations but you have to select your tenants well, as lower job security and pay means greater risk of non payment.

As for commercial, you can also look at peripheral cities where you can get more space for your money, but you are less likely to find strong national or multinational tenants, which is what I always look for. You will have a contract length of 5 to 10 years, often with the option to extend for another 5 or 10 years. Chains such as Zabka and Freshmarket are larger companies with multi million backing and there is little chance of them disappearing. You can also look at post office and telecoms/utilities companies, anything that is large. There are a lot of units coming up for sale where banks have rented the space. They tend too to have long term contracts but prices are quite elevated as locations are always great and in the next few years I expect a lot of the banks are going to drastically reduce their number of branches, we may even get one or two going bust. So I would stay away from units with banks in them unless the location is great and the price acceptable, since you need to be able to re rent the unit in the future at a good yield.
polishinvestor   
14 Feb 2016
Law / Business in Poland and Polish reality, How are you doing in Poland? [82]

Myself and my family from the UK invest in the dolnyslask region. We have properties in Jelenia Gora, Dzierzoniow and Wroclaw. We currently have a mixture of town houses and commercial property. Good locations thats a given and if talking individual units, then smaller ones which are easier to maintain and rent regularly (by that I mean you can sign a 5 year contract once but can you do it again in the future) with solid local footfall. We did have new flats for sale but have sold almost all of them last year, however its not an area we will be pursuing again in the near future as I think its one of the weaker areas of the property market here. You can diversify away from commercial if you need to by renting flats to private sector. I certainly wouldnt consider buying a property that I couldnt visit within a couple of hours drive but Im no expert on the Spainish market and it may be viable to hire an agency to take care of the week to week requirements concerning your property.

Spending 500-800k (maybe 60-100m2) on a small commercial should see a monthly rent of between four to six thousand zloty on average. Often it will be in a new build with low operating costs. Generally the tenant is responsible for the media, you need to pay the council tax which is about 23zl/metre per year for business property across Poland (so about 2300zl/yr for a 100m unit). Insurance will be your other cost, count about a couple of grand per million invested. After this is the service charge for upkeep of the building the unit is part of and paid by the owner of each unit. This varies and you need to check that there are not unfavourable water or heating rates priced into this charge as this will make it less appealing to the tenant and lower your return.
polishinvestor   
13 Feb 2016
Law / Business in Poland and Polish reality, How are you doing in Poland? [82]

I hope its not the case but I often find Poles look out for number one. Certainly I experienced this with some members of the family here in Poland. To stay diplomatic thats all that I'll say of this matter.

Personally Im putting together a portfolio of small commercial properties for my daughters, something that they will be able to continue to rent out themselves. The rest Im switching out as and when I feel is the correct time to do, but the small commercial will remain while they continue to exhibit solid fundamentals for the future.

As for your current predicament, only you can and should decide whether its time to call time on your venture. I have experienced small village small business for a couple of years a few years ago. I had some spare time on my hands and wanted to get them dirty so to speak, do something a bit more physical to make sure the health is where it should be. The venture ended up being marginally profitable but ended up taking up most of the week rather than the one or two days that I had originally planned. Waste of time? I did learn a new trade but could the time spent doing it could possibly have been spent more profitably (financial or otherwise) elsewhere? Possibly.

If you do decide to make the jump into property, there really are many avenues you can explore, all offering solid yields and a good chance of capital gain. Stuff on otodom and agency websites in often massively overpriced, but the good news is the differnce between the list price and selling price averages about 25% across Poland, so dont be afraid to lowball. In fact you must, its often the only way to get a good deal. Im not really one to champion private/retail buy to let as I think commerical returns are better and more predictable, but if you buy a few cheap flats or town house, bring them/it up to standard, then it can achieve a solid yield. If you are willing to wait a bit for capital gains, buying in peripheral cities, where prices havent rebound from post crisis levels, means you should be seeing above country average capital gains in 10 years. The downside risks are that they may (but not always; I have stuff on a 8-9% yield almost untouched for 10 years) require more active management on your part compared to large city offerings, but it may be something preferential if you are looking for something close to where you live. At the end of the day property is a common sense business and if you have some of that common sense, you can be an active investor in your business, rather than passive as is currently the case with the bus business.
polishinvestor   
13 Feb 2016
Law / Business in Poland and Polish reality, How are you doing in Poland? [82]

Yes its often very difficult to replicate success in a small village. Sometimes people just arent interested but quite often would take advantage of various services/offerings but they just dont have the free funds. Unless you really know the lay of the land and the workings of a Polish village its best to stick to larger cities and more traditional investments.
polishinvestor   
13 Feb 2016
Life / If UK votes to leave the EU - what repercussions for British people living in Poland? [32]

Its possible they use that delicate approach but in such a case there would be zero benefits to those seeking work although those in work may get some in work benefits depending on how long they have been working in the UK. But its all just speculation as nobody has admitted to working on a plan since the governments main line is to stay even though nearly a third of conservatives MP's are likely to vote for an exit going by a survey done not long after Cameron's so called victory with EU negotiations.
polishinvestor   
13 Feb 2016
Law / Business in Poland and Polish reality, How are you doing in Poland? [82]

The problems he has written about wont be solved by adding more buses. He says he has low prices but he cannot make it work. More overheads are not going to make him more profitable. Its the quality of the work taken that matters. And sometimes in certain situations a certain business does not pay. The trick is to be able to coldly assess and make the correct decision to walk away in such a case. In business you stick to what you know and what you can make work. Some people I heard of in this industry are buying new Porsches, cash not leased, but I also know that they arent fully compliant with all laws. In any case they concentrate on, as you have stated, "business clients" put very loosely ferrying people to and from Germany. Can be very lucrative as its a repeat business, generally a person travels every 2 months if caring for the elderly in Germany. And there are likely more people travelling to Germany on such work than the total number of Poles in the UK.

Butf you know property and are comfortable with it, there are many opportunities to earn 8-10% yields and capital growth in the long term if you buy wisely. People in Poland have a habit of trying to convince you how best to spend or invest your money, usually with an underlying interest of their own. Again, one should stick to what one understands. One of Warren Buffetts oldest lines but worth heading.
polishinvestor   
12 Feb 2016
Life / If UK votes to leave the EU - what repercussions for British people living in Poland? [32]

Referendum is likely June 23 (assuming this months EU summit passes as expected) and likely to be a 56-60% vote to leave. Those already in the UK, settled with passports, it wont make too much of a difference. UK is a pretty soft touch with an everyones a winner policy on just about every level, so its unlikely people will be shipped out en masse. It may be on the lines that those with no offer for work will be given a stated amount of time to leave, while those with a work offer will be given a visa for the length of their contract.

Thatcher was never keen on a full blown EU marriage, she preferred the UK to be the bit on the side with benefits. EU nations are stuck with each, but the UK has ties with the USA, Hong Kong (China) and India and is better suited, as far as its concerned, outside of the EU mishap. Those that believe the UK will disappear down a chasm if it leaves the EU are mistaken. Trade arrangements can be made but the UK makes the EU stronger, with the UK in it, the EU becomes less stable. Of course there would be some initial interruptions and setbacks, but therein lies the opportunity.
polishinvestor   
12 Feb 2016
Real Estate / Buying property in Poland [41]

It may have been the 90's as yes before 89 you couldnt buy. I saw the original akt while at the notariusz and had a quick look at the price. He made a tidy some but not quite as much as he wanted. Technically I still overpaid (one of the few times no kontrola on price from urzad skarbowy after 5 years) as it was farmland at the time but became budowlane with the local plan zagospodorwania miasta a few years later. Now theres a biedronka built opposite it.
polishinvestor   
12 Feb 2016
Real Estate / Buying property in Poland [41]

Karpacz is quite expensive but the surrounding regions are just a couple/few kilometres away and are a lot cheaper. Still there are huge variations in prices, some people put daft prices on houses/land. Being a foreigner their initial reaction will be to try to fleece you, but if you go cash in hand so to speak they often will kneel when they see the colour of your money. Always knock them down to a very low base as its a buyers market as prices have started to drift lower after a stable last year. A few years back both sides ballparked around 240k for a large piece of land a few km's from Karpacz, I hit them with 110k a few days later and all agreed at 180k after a few tears. But the guy bought for around 20K in the 80's so wasnt hard done by.
polishinvestor   
11 Feb 2016
Law / Business in Poland and Polish reality, How are you doing in Poland? [82]

Thats life in Polish small town backwaters. Its the people in these places that are the biggest law flouters and tax dodgers. You really have your work cut out try to compete with them. You can do so but generally then there is not much money to be made. This is why backwaters have stayed backwaters and why the bigger cities have prospered. At the end of the day you have to look at the income people have as it limits what they can then spend. There are some things in such villages you can do if you must stick to something local where you are. Such as renting key space to those providing key amenities. It might be the only bank in the village, or post office, or the single branded mini market in town, but these places will sign up on long term contracts and pay a good rent in the region of 7-12%. Or you could look into non-touch car washes. It is far better to go for the nearest large city as there is more choice and you can sell quicker and prices are more likely to go up faster.
polishinvestor   
10 Feb 2016
Law / Business in Poland and Polish reality, How are you doing in Poland? [82]

What you are experiencing is a similar shock to most people that come from the UK, especially if its a small rural village. Its a different way of life where things move slow and there is no concept of time is money.

Anyway I used to own a small auto repair in a small town and we did a fair few of these vans. The owners were just interested in keeping the buses running, nothing at all about safety. All for as cheap as possible. As regards fuel you will find a lot of owners buy stolen fuel at a discount. For example take any haulage firm that runs a number of lorries. The drivers will regularly siphon off a few canisters of fuel from each vehicle each week. They know how much fuel the vehicles use and they know how much they can siphon off and all the drivers are in on it. Often the owners know about this but dont react harshly since they want to keep hold of their more reliable drivers. This fuel is then sold on for a 1zl per litre less than the prices at the petrol stations. Very often its drivers of these small vans and buses that buy the stolen fuel. So thats one way they have a head start on you. A second, where there are a few buses involved, you will find the drivers are moonlighting, being employed legally elsewhere, but taking sickies and days off to drive buses and so happy to be paid a few bob cash in hand. Thirdly, you didnt mention this, but quite profitable is doing the bustops between various towns, you need to apply for a licence from the gmina to do that. You charge about 2-5zl per person for a 5-15km run. Here the cheat is that these guys run their buses a couple of minutes before the official ones (via the timetable) and collect up the people at the bus stops without having a licence to do so and of course meaning the legally run buses end up with less clients. Of course the owners of the legit firms dont appreciate this behaviour and I heard of one incident where they surrounded one of such buses and dragged the driver out and gave him a good hiding. Middle of the day centre of town. The good news is the urzad celny has started to take an interest in such activity and buses are starting to get impounded and large fines handed out. But do look into running their bus routes, the gmina would welcome a well run service Im sure.
polishinvestor   
9 Feb 2016
Real Estate / New flat / apartment - insurance in Poland? [9]

I dont know if the insuring agent has seen the property before providing you with a quote, its important that they do and then you can provide evidence to the contrary of their valuation. Even urzad skarbowa isnt aware of specific situations even in town squares so it may be a case that Generali has just put the numbers into a program rather than having looked into the individual property.
polishinvestor   
9 Feb 2016
Life / What is meant by 'dochody' (monthly earnings per child) in Poland - are they GROSS or NET? [8]

They are talking net in regards to first child. Cash in hand so to speak. If earnings are below 800zl per person in a 3 person family, then they will be entitled to join the 500 program. If both parents work and earn the minimum wage they will not be entitled as the minimum net wage I think is 1356 but dont quote me on that.
polishinvestor   
9 Feb 2016
Life / What income/assets and worth, will give you a "rich" status in Poland? [22]

Its just what some people say in the UK Doug. But cash or cash equivalents is not property Doug. 1 large in the bank or money markets. Not talking about anything leased or acquired through debt. Corporations and funds tend to own the larger complexes but small commercial for a million or two can be financed almost exclusively be debt thanks to the low interest rates/bank margins and relatively high yield close to double figures even in the better locations in the largest cities. Its not a risk free strategy or something Id promote given problems outside of Poland, but in 10 years or less your own the unit.
polishinvestor   
8 Feb 2016
Real Estate / Buying property in Poland [41]

Better ask the notary that will be handling the transfer. Every time we use them they are a wealth of information and since you are doing a transaction, the information is free.

Sometimes when people are asked to prove they saved money, you can use a bank statement showing the funds present. It doesnt matter if they were present years ago, as look as there is a record. Or if she for example sold a property in the UK in her name, that may suffice. But as I say, worth asking the notary.
polishinvestor   
8 Feb 2016
News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

Policing is what is most important with these projects (once you have of course selected projects that have a chance of reaching their aim). Poles werent keen on policing dispensed EU funds as it was EU money and Germans didnt want to push the issue of forcing their officials into Polish territory, so much money badly spent at best, embezzled at worst. One town in dolnyslask got 3 million to do water mains a few years back. 1 million went missing while local council decided to put up water rates claiming the need to pay for the project depsite majority of funds being from EU. Resulted in having highest water rates in dolnyslask.
polishinvestor   
8 Feb 2016
News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

Announced today that tomorrow or in one week (?) Morawiecki, the finance minister, will announce his plan to regenerate til now underdeveloped regions of Poland.

bankier.pl/wiadomosc/Morawiecki-o-strategii-rozwoju-Ma-sluzyc-mieszkancom-terenow-mniej-zadbanych-3482183.html
polishinvestor   
8 Feb 2016
Real Estate / New flat / apartment - insurance in Poland? [9]

Thats surprising, any insurance we set have always been accepted by the insurance companies and generally we have aimed just a little higher than mkt value to be on the safe side. We used PZU and HDI mostly, in some cases UNIQA, maybe worth calling elsewhere other than Generali. Usually the agent wont be afraid to except a slightly higher quote as it means a higher premium for them unless you have really overvalued the property. Maybe the state of the building in which the flat resides was of concern to the insurer.
polishinvestor   
8 Feb 2016
Life / What income/assets and worth, will give you a "rich" status in Poland? [22]

Dont think there was much of a middle class in Poland, it was the rich and then poor. Then came the mega rich who organised themselves at the table when communism fell, gaining assets for pennies, or groszy I should say. Anyway from memory so dont quote me, the avg wage in Poland is about 4500zl +/-, but most people earn much less somewhere around 1600-2500zl p/m. Even so, in Poland I think its more about what someone has as to how they are viewed by others here. There are those with a high wage that spend it all on an on going basis and have nothing to show for it, while another will earn the same or less but save, maybe get themselves a mortgage to buy a flat/house (low interest rates and generally low prices has meant a lot of people have had access to owning their own property), car, go on a holiday or two a year. That kind of person is seen as well off in Poland, probably a middle class and often resented by those that have chosen a different way of life. Even with the young you often see friction between students and those of a similar age but choosing to do nothing at all. As for the rich, in the UK they say if you have a million in cash or cash equivalents then you are rich, Id guess the same would apply here but obviously in terms of zloty not pounds.
polishinvestor   
8 Feb 2016
UK, Ireland / British guy refused work because of Polish workers [39]

People look to emerging markets for a better a better ROI, a better yield. With that come many risks. If it was very easy to do business in Poland and very transparent, prices would be higher and so yearly returns lower. In the UK for example you have a very good legal system, pro-business goverment, locally and Westminster, a pool of skilled and motivated workers to choose from, but the costs are high and so ROI much smaller than EM. In EM, you have to accept a "less civilised" way of doing business and working sometimes, actively manage it as much as possible, in return for the greater ROI than in the UK. Its much easier to squeeze an extra 1% return in EM than in the UK given the inefficiencies in EM and thats where good management comes in. Of course EM should only ever be part of a company's investment structure, given it is always going to be more risky (ie risk of capital loss) than developed.
polishinvestor   
5 Feb 2016
Life / Whats up with Polish guys getting drunk and looking for a fight? [61]

The disco-polo types that spend their hours in the silownia tend to be patriots at best, racists at worst. They probably think its being macho and that they are defending Polish girls from other races. Its less common in larger cities but unfortunately quite common in small **** holes
polishinvestor   
5 Feb 2016
News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

When considering smaller nations, what most governments do has almost of no postive consequence to growth. There is very little room for manoeuvre. All economies are now linked and move to the tune of what happens in the USA China and Europe. Local governments can however hinder growth by creating unfavourable conditions for investment. You have to play the game the way the rest of the world plays it or you will ultimately be worse off.

As I said before, the zloty and Polish investments got a break due to improved sentiment towards emerging markets, thanks to a change in US interest rate expectations. But note that against the euro its still above 4.40 despite clear signals for Europe that it will cut interest rates in March and devalue its currency further.
polishinvestor   
5 Feb 2016
News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

But the złoty has rebounded to 3.94 = $1 today

The zloty has rebounded because interest rate expectations in the US have been cut back. When US rates go up, people move out of emerging market investments, such as Poland. When they go down, people move back in and we have seen interest rate expectations cut back strongly over the past couple of weeks. This is why the zloty has recovered against the dollar and the stockmarket has recovered a bit too.
polishinvestor   
5 Feb 2016
News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]

Jernomo Martins, the owner of Biedronka, is listed in Portugal. The government has large and often controlling stakes in the majority of the WIG20 stocks, certainly the largest ones bar the odd example auch as Pekao. The rest such as PKOBP PGNIG PKNOrlen PZU KGHM PGE are all essentially controlled by the government. Thats wellover 50% of the whole mkt capitalisation of the WIG20. This is why the CEO's have all been fired and talks started to create conglomerates between PGNIG PKNOrlen and Lotos, another government controlled oil company.