Poland: from €73,176Apartments in a 270-unit development in Warsaw range from under €73,176 to €134,852. Justin Comiskey reports
Forty-five apartments in a modern scheme near the centre of the Polish capital Warsaw are being launched this week by Hamilton Osborne King with prices from €73,176.
Czerska, a development of 270 apartments, is located in the Mokotów district in the south of the city about 10 minutes from the central business district.
The Royal Way, Warsaw's main north-south boulevard, with a wide selection of shops, restaurants and museums, is a short walk from the development, as is the beautiful Lazienki Park.
Czerska, which is being developed by local real estate company Eco Group, is a modern building with the apartments generally above ground floor commercial units. The entire complex is secured and monitored with cameras, and there is direct lift access to and from the underground garage.
One-bedroom apartments at Czerska of 41-62 sq m (444-671 sq ft) are priced from €73,176-€105,309, while two-bedroom apartments of 72-83 sq m (779-897 sq ft) cost from €119,894-€134,852.
Each apartment in this phase has a living area, kitchen, bathroom and a balcony. Bathrooms and kitchens are fully furnished and equipped, and a car-parking place in the underground garage is included in the price.
The estimated date of completion for the project is October 2005 and a management company is to be made available to purchasers who wish to have their unit rented.
A large local bank is the co-finance bank for the project while any monies transferred as payments for the Czerska project are held in an escrow account and are secured until completion.
Poland gained accession to the EU this year and is expected to join the euro-zone around 2007.
Its economy is expected to grow by 5.5 per cent this year, inflation stands at 4.5 per cent and unemployment is 20 per cent.
Investors have been busy buying up residential schemes in Eastern Europe - particularly in EU accession countries - for a number of years.
A sign that investors are turning their attention to Warsaw is the massive €400 million Golden Terrace retail development in the city centre currently under construction.
Warsaw, which has a population of 1.6 million, sits on a little plateau overlooking the River Vistula. The old city was razed by the Nazis in 1944 but subsequently rebuilt after the war. Two airlines service the Dublin-Warsaw route.
Poland's leading administrative centre, Warsaw is the second most important industrial region in Poland.
It has benefited from the boom in construction and commerce that followed the fall of Communism in 1989. The local economy is now based more on trade, distribution, and services than on manufacturing.
The city is also developing as a centre for finance, banking, and consulting. The stock exchange reopened in 1991 after being shuttered for 50 years.
