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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.