With 4 pct y-o-y GDP growth in the first quarter of the year, the lowest ever unemployment since the economic transition of 1989, and the recent change of Moody’s A2 issuer rating from negative to stable, Poland seems to be more than in a good position to attract investment. This was acknowledged by those who came on May 17th to the Intercontinental hotel in Warsaw to discuss the state of Polish real state. And yet the speakers weren’t blinded to the weaknesses. The factors that seem to cool investors’ appetite for investment include recent changes to VAT on real estate, with the introduction of an anti-tax avoidance rule for closed investment funds and a new bank tax.
The question “Why is Poland so sexy for investors?” asked by Przemysław Felicki, the director of investment properties at CBRE, who moderated the first panel, was clearly loaded, but no objections were raised to it. On the contrary, Maciej Dyjas, a co-managing partner and co-CEO of Griffin