A very, merry crisis...

The above-mentioned slogan - which was cited by well-known Polish economist Krzysztof Rybiński during a conference on the future of the residential market organised by RedNet - had originally been spotted on the wall of a building somewhere in crisis-stricken Greece. Is the prevailing mood on the region's real estate market any better than that of the credit-crunched Hellenes? Judging from my latest meetings, it is not. This might be a result of the nights drawing in, as this tends to make people more gloomy than the first rays of spring sunshine. And from the random set of people I have talked to, there seems to be only one conclusion - 2013 will feature a "massacre of the innocents" (to quote one of my interlocutors). Residential developers appear to be particularly pessimistic. They admit that they are faced with one of the hardest periods in their history. However, the only good thing about hitting the bottom is that it needs to happen before we can bounce back. So is the Polish residential market bouncing back already? This is what we discuss in this issue. At least one residential player will be in a better mood on December 6th. On this day - at the Eurobuild Awards Gala - we will announce which company is the best residential developer of 2012. Statuettes will also be presented to the 33 winners of the other categories: starting from the best retail, office and warehouse developers, to the best teams of individual real estate agency departments, to awards for the best facilities completed this year. These should be perfect presents for Christmas. Keeping with the Christmas spirit, we have unearthed a version of 'A Christmas Carol' that Charles Dickens must have written in his days as a struggling developer. I especially recommend it to representatives of the banking sector.