Gold in the lakes

 It is best known as a city rich in nature, with forests, eleven lakes, and a several thousand strong student population. It is the major city of the Warmia and Mazury province in north-east Poland, the largest city of the whole region and also the local business centre – specializing in the tyre (Michelin), furniture (Mazurskie Meble International), food processing and wood industries.

 Alfa leads the field

Anna Bartoszewicz–Wnuk, head of research and retail consultancy at Jones Lang LaSalle, remarks that: “Olsztyn’s market for modern retail in effect comprises only a few shopping properties, headed by the Alfa shopping centre,

 “Coffin” too little

 Logistics deficiencies

 Run on housing

Andrzej Bogusz, Arbet’s president, provides us with the reason for the mind-boggling increases in home prices: the huge prices demanded for land. As he says: “There are only a few plots left within the city boundaries and wherever they exist they lack the appropriate infrastructure and spatial development plans,” explains Mr Bogusz. “This is why my company cannot foresee any great prospects for growth, although we really do try to think in terms of the future, which is why we recently purchased a total of 20-ha of land for housing construction.” Last year, the company delivered some 400 homes on to the market.

In late 2004, the company started work on its first project in Olsztyn, comprising around 300 homes on ul. Gałczyńskiego. The estate is almost complete and every apartment has been sold (PLN 2,650 per sqm, plus an extra payment for a cellar). The company presently faces a fresh challenge – that of the Belweder estate in Jaroty, Olsztyn’s largest district. Construction has already begun, with 90 pct of the 500 homes to be built on a site of around 4.5-ha, already reserved (the price demanded being PLN 3,190 sqm).

It is not only Olsztyn’s citizens who want to buy homes in the city. Foreign investors are also expressing an interest, as well as investment funds and open pension funds. Andrzej Moszczyński informs us that: “We recently purchased a 5-ha plot on the Miła Bay where we intend to develop a high-standard enclosed estate at a price no less than PLN 5,000 per sqm. This has aroused tremendous interest among foreign investors, including several from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and various kinds of funds. We feel that only around 30 pct of these apartments will be available on the ‘free market’ for normal customers.” The homes within this new project will be adapted for renting to tourists. Ewa Andrzejewska