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Growth in Tourism

  • Poland and Ukraine will host the European Championship in 2012 after Uefa awarded them the tournament ahead of Italy and another joint bid from Hungary and Croatia.  The two countries have never previously hosted anything of this magnitude. 

- The Polish FA’s chairman, Michal Listkiewicz, said: “This big tournament will be an important milestone in the history of  our two Slavic nations.”

  • Polish authorities said last week that around 26 billion euros (35 billion dollars), including EU financing, have been earmarked to upgrade infrastructure. 

Improving Infrastructure

  • Booming low-cost airlines carry hundreds of thousands of Poles back and forth to western Europe every year

  • Poland has received major EU funding since the fall of communism in 1989, and whilst the country still hasn't built a motorway network connecting its major cities yet, it is nevertheless excellently positioned, at the heart of Europe, as a distribution centre. For those companies looking to drive their businesses further eastwards, especially into the Balkan states and the cities, Poland is very attractive and a number of high profile companies have set up distribution centres including: IKEA, Unilever, and Ahold and Auchan as a result

  • EU grant money is helping to drive the logistics sector in Poland, by providing funds to both build and modernise existing roads and railways

  • EU grants of 514 euros million in 2006 to aid infrastructure support

Politics/Economy

  • Full member of the EU since 2004, providing a degree of economic and political stability, as well as opening up trading relationships

  • Member of NATO since 1999, provides a degree of protection and security

  • The economy grew 3.2% in 2005 then 5.2% in 2006 – this is a considerably higher growth than in the eurozone, which levelled out at 1.7% in 2006. Growth is expected to continue at around 5% pa for the next 5 years

  • Private sector contribution to GDP in 2006 was 70%

  • Consistently low inflation currently 1.3%

  • Foreign direct investment 4.36 billion euros in 2004 and up to 7.7 billion euros in 2006

  • Poland now ranks 5th in the World on the Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index

  • Wages increased on average 4.5% in 2005, up to 8% in some areas

  • Unemployment has decreased from around 30% in 2003 to 18% latest figures

Buoyant Property market

  • 2006 study of potential capital appreciation (Source: Channel 4 “A Place in the Sun” accountant-commissioned report) concluded that Polish real estate could offer 393% returns over the next ten years - although this level of growth is unrealistic, Poland clearly represents a good opportunity. Demand is rising steadily as a reflection of this, and is likely to continue doing so for a long while

  • With a population of 38m, a young and rapidly urbanising workforce is demanding well-located, rental property and more now have the cash to pay the rents for the property they want. Property ownership is a relatively new concept (the country was communist until just 12 years ago), with 60% now homeowners

  • Only small levels of borrowing; less than 20% of properties are mortgaged and the total mortgage market is less than 15% of GDP (in the UK this figure is around 40%). As property investment becomes more widespread, so the financial services industry should catch up. With secured lending in a developing state, this may have a dampening effect on property prices currently, but once secured lending is more established, this can only serve to boost the property market. 

  • Across Poland yields range from as low as 4% up to 9%, averaging around 6.5%. With interest rates just below 6%, yields are effectively compressed to an unattractive level, however with cheap labour and low land prices, high levels of Foreign Direct Investment are set to continue to flood in, thus continuing to drive economic growth and salaries and therefore rents and property prices too

  • Poland's capital (with a population of only 2m) still attracts the lion's share of overseas investment money as foreign companies increasingly seek to establish strategic HQs there - and this is a pattern that will continue. Although some land-hungry project developers are opting for sites away from the capital - mainly because the cost is lower and the available resources - labour and administrative support - are still present

  • Warehousing and logistic centres are still predominently located around Warsaw, but this, too, is changing

  • Urbanisation occurring at high levels in several cities, Warsaw currently has only 5% of country’s population (unusually low for a capital) - a figure set to double by 2010

  • With an emerging indigenous middle class, the wealth to rent and ability to buy are both increasing, raising demand and thus signalling great prospects for the growth of real estate in Poland

  • According to the Emerging Trends in Real Estate Europe report released jointly by the Urban Land Institute and PriceWaterhouseCooper, in 2006 Poland should show the largest increase in residential sales across Europe. With an increasingly robust economy and within three hours flight of London, buyers are able to keep a close eye on their investments

  • Poland is taken very seriously by educated investors, and whether Poland can still be classed as an emerging market is debatable. However, the property market remains buoyant, and off-plan developments often sell out before building begins

  • Large scale building programmes in the 1970s and 1980s contributed to a significant increase in residential stock. The quality of build was not high and over 60% of the housing stock stands in need of repair, and as such creates polarised demand for either new or old properties, not really in between

Accessibility

  • Warsaw: BA fly from Heathrow, Lot Polish Airlines fly from Heathrow and Manchester, Easyjet and Wizzair fly from Luton, Wizzair also flies from Belfast, Centralwings from Edinburgh

  • Krakow: BA and Easyjet fly from Gatwick, Ryanair flies from Stansted, Skyeurope Slovakia fly from Stansted, Manchester and Birmingham, Easyjet also flies from Luton as well as Belfast

- In addition, Bristol, Liverpool, Leeds/Bradford, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Dublin, all have airlines that fly to Krakow

  • Wroclaw: Centralwings flies from Gatwick, Ryanair flies from Stansted

  • Katowice: Wizzair flies from Luton, Centralwings from Edinburgh

- Katowice can be accessed via Luton, Bournemouth, Liverpool, Doncaster, Edinburgh, Cork, Dublin, Belfast International

Favourable tax regime

  • A foreign resident who is employed in Poland pays tax only on his income earned in Poland. There is no separate CGT in Poland.