2 Canny Polish Resorts for the Canny Real Estate Investor

A decade ago few considered Poland as a place to spend their holidays. In 1999 it was voted ‘Most Popular Cultural Destination’ by readers of the Sunday Times, but this did not generate a large footfall. Tourism actually declined after Poland joined the EU in 2004, although most of this was due to visits by Germans who had previously crossed the border in search of goods that could be bought without VAT.

By 2006, the country had rebounded by becoming the seventh most popular tourist destination in Europe, attracting one million more leisure visitors than Greece. The number could be much higher, but the infrastructure to allow it is not yet in place.

Specifically, the country is woefully short of hotels. Poland has 35 hotel rooms for every ten thousand inhabitants. It’s a strange yardstick, but it’s used when comparing countries for research purposes. Using the same measure, the Czech Republic has 221 hotel rooms, six times as many as its northern neighbor and provides a clear indication of how much Poland needs to do to grow its tourism sector.

But change is underway with companies like the Orbis group planning forty-five new stores. By 2012, it is estimated that there will be another 560 new hotels across the country, providing welcome relief from a long-standing bottleneck.

As an investor, the question must be: where should you buy to get in on the action and take advantage of this anticipated growth?

Magazines have often singled out Gdansk and Zakopane as the tourist spots that foreign buyers should focus on. There is some truth in this. Both have well-developed networks of English-speaking developers and estate agents, making buying and renting easy.

The local government of Gdansk has declared that it wants to rebuild sixty percent of the city and the changes in the infrastructure will bring capital gains. 580 kilometers away, in Zakopane, the authorities have moved in the other direction, freezing all new planning applications. Increased demand and limited supply are good news for property values.

But pioneers don’t follow the crowd. The easier it is to buy, the more foreign investors will own property in your neighborhood. So where do they look? Where are the Gdansk and Zakopane of the future?

With much of Poland suitable for tourism, the options are wide and varied, but perhaps two places stand out: Roztocze and Chelmno.

Roztocze in Lubelskie is an Area of ​​Outstanding Natural Beauty and a protected national park. This strip of forests, lakes and meadows includes medieval villages, cities and a spa, all of which already attract large numbers of domestic tourists.

In the future there will be an international airport two hours drive to the north and Rzeszow in the south is already a year away.

Some have speculated that in 2012, when soccer fans travel back and forth between Ukraine and Poland, Roztocze will suddenly be discovered and catapulted onto the list of top European tourist destinations.

At the moment it has a rather disjointed infrastructure with horse riding, canoeing, cycling and a host of other activities on offer, but only if you know where to look for them and can speak a little Polish. The area is also woefully short of hotels and tourist accommodation, which is good news for those thinking of investing in these fields.

Roztocze is a maybe, but it’s a maybe with all the basic components in place to make it more likely than unlikely.

Chelmno is definitely an off the beaten path option. This small walled medieval town sits on a hill overlooking a vast northern plateau in Kujawsko-Pomorskie. Its period buildings are faded with peeling paint from the window frames, and all around there is an air of glory days long gone. But this city has all the makings of a future hotspot and if one day you want to look from your balcony onto a street lined with tourists who “wished they’d shopped when it was really cheap”, look out for this provincial gem just waiting to be visited. dusted.

Poland’s ability to charm, entertain and stun the leisure visitor is well known to those who have been, but today’s tourist numbers are expected to grow substantially as word spreads. However, there is a cautionary note. Investors shying away from the well-known resorts should remember that they will be faced with underdeveloped infrastructure and a language barrier, but this is exactly what those who bought in Gdansk and Zakopane had to deal with a decade ago and that is exactly why. who took full advantage of the property’s substantial benefits. For more information click on [http://www.NativePoland.com]