If you read the press or the internet on a regular basis you quickly become familiar with the phrases 2nd Tier and 3rd Tier cities

If you read the press or the internet on a regular basis you
quickly become familiar with the phrases 2nd Tier and 3rd
Tier cities. These are the locations investors speculate
will see high levels of capital gain now that Warsaw,
Wroclaw and Krakow have gone through their growth phase.

Will Opole see the same success as Wroclaw? Will Torun go up
in value the way Warsaw did? The guessing game goes on but
in truth the best buys are still actually everywhere and the
smart buyer only needs a few pointers to find them.

Firstly Poland is starting to see commuter belts and
corridors forming around major cities in a way Western
Europe knows all too well. Buyers priced out of city centres
will travel long distances to work in return for a larger
property, excellent schools for their children and a better
lifestyle.

Look around the likes of Warsaw or Krakow for towns and
villages with good transport links or roads, hire a
consultancy company to find you the best schools within one
hundred kilometres, and you will have found the areas where
demand for property is most likely to grow over the next
decade.

Secondly commercial property is overlooked by most foreign
investors who follow the herd despite the fact that these
units are often located on the residential developments they
are considering. Commercial space is cheaper to fit out and
business tenants are more long term and less demanding than
their residential counterparts. Before signing the
reservation for an apartment check to see what else is on
offer within the complex you are looking at.

Thirdly Poland's tourist accommodation is woefully
inadequate for the number of leisure visitors who want to
descend on the country every year. Poland has 35 hotel rooms
per 10,000 inhabitants compared to 221 in its Southern
Neighbour, the Czech Republic, and 195 in Germany. With
Poland attracting one million more tourists a year than
Greece the system is quite literally bursting at the seams
so purchasing a hotel or a house suitable for conversion
could produce exceptional returns.

As more and more foreign investors discover Poland most will
follow the well trodden path into buying residential
apartments. Those who want something more should consider
three often overlooked options - the commuter belts,
commercial property and real estate related to tourism.