Head for the hills!

Such tempting thoughts usually come to us when we feel overwhelmed by our responsibilities and deadlines become pressing. That’s when you might feel the irresistible urge to throw off the corporate shackles and suddenly change your environment for one that’s calm, clean and idyllic.

However, a good friend of mine (also called Tomek) is the only person I know who has taken this saying at its word – he quit a good job, took a substantial severance package, waved his handkerchief at Warsaw and opened a restaurant next to one of the main Bieszczady trails. Tomek’s story paints a picture of the Bieszczady Mountains that is not always so idyllic, although it’s not the climate, the packs of wolves or the Polish New Tax Deal that he generally complains about, but rather the tourists who form the basis of his livelihood. I could fill several pages with his anecdotes (sometimes comical, sometimes tragic), but instead I’m going to focus on a subject close to every real estate professional’s heart. The building in which Tomek rents the space for his restaurant is owned by a national park and looks like it dates back to the late 1940s or early 1950s – or so the tenant initially suspected. The low, sprawling building is certainly no architectural gem and is now badly run down due to the passage of time. Literally every structural element has cracks in it and crumbles at the slightest knock. You can actually drill holes in the walls with your finger – in fact, this is the only precise way to do this, since if you used an 8-bit drill, you’d get a 12-bit hole. One day, a guest turned up on the premises and proudly proclaimed, while jabbing his chest with his index finger: “I built this place!” This came as something of a surprise, as he should have been over 100 years old, but seemed rather younger than that. However, the visitor did reveal some interesting details. It turned out that the property had been built in the 1980s by the military. Moreover, the soldiers had been promised leave once the construction was completed, so it was thrown up rapidly and grew in front of their very eyes. But unfortunately, a few quality controls were skipped. These very same soldiers were also put to work clearing the surrounding fields of trees, and so they took to removing the stumps with dynamite. Then they would often have to start the day’s construction work by replacing all the windows shattered by the explosions.

Happily, technology has improved since then and we have a (usually) more professional workforce, so there is (mostly) no need to worry about the quality of the construction work. In keeping with the holiday mood, our summer issue of ‘Eurobuild’ is dominated by topics perfect for this time of year. We kick off with an analysis of the holiday apartment and condo hotel markets, and then take a look at cycle bridge construction, which is currently undergoing a boom in Poland. The same goes for tram systems, which are also going through a renaissance across Europe. We also take you into the heart of a huge new riverbank housing project in Poznań, and then – almost without drawing breath – we will take you on a trip to Germany to see how the investment market is doing across the western border. You can also find extensive coverage of our spring/summer events, including our golf and tennis tournaments and our office conference, so you can re-live them once again.

I wish you a pleasant read, preferably under a palm or a beech tree – as long as it’s somewhere nice and relaxing.