Living the dream

It was words like these, often paraphrased in the form of election pledges, that came back to me when I was studying materials for the December issue of ‘Eurobuild CEE’. We have had a new government in place in Poland for just a few weeks and a new president for a few months, but I can still hear the slogans and sound bites of the election campaign in my head. What impact, if any, are the changes at the top going to have on the real estate market? There are a few angles to look at, and we write about one of them (the dreaded ’hypermarket tax’) in the article entitled “A Change for the Worse?” A few people in our sector (Tomasz Trzósło of JLL and CBRE’s Daniel Bienias) have their own expectations and suggestions for the new administration, in terms of how to streamline the sector. And since we have smoothly segued into the realm of desires, imaginings and conceptions, a few pages earlier you can discover that there is a new species of building called ‘pencil skyscrapers’ – the ultra-thin high-rises that are the latest creature to emerge from architects’ fantasies. And in my opinion, at least, that’s where they should have stayed. Will such slender towers be built in our part of Europe? The article ‘Thin Off the Ground’ looks into this possibility. And what else are our local real estate celebrities dreaming of? About peace in the world, plenty of free time, generous bosses and having a happy Christmas. How did we find all this out? We asked them to dress up as Santa and tell us what they would give to whom at Christmas – and since they turned out to be in such a giving mood, our entire editorial team has also added its presents to the secret list guarded by the elves.