Crisis? What crisis?

You will probably be asking yourselves the same question while reading the articles in this issue. There are extraordinary things happening on the real estate market, particularly in the retail sector. Developers and investors do not seem to be worrying about the crisis. They are looking to the future with the kind of optimism that hasn't been seen for a long time. Gigantic projects are being planned in the capital cities of the CEE region and the investment market has fired up. New business ideas are being dreamt up, such as the Czerwona Torebka (Red Bag) concept, which is brilliant in its simplicity. As one of our interlocutors explains, the crisis is actually more about government debt. Corporations, however, have a huge supply of capital at their disposal and are looking for so-called safe products, such as shopping centres in Poland and other countries of our region. They are buying them and in this way supplying money to developers, who are investing these funds in new projects. So business is clearly booming. But what dangers lie ahead? For companies operating in the retail sector, it is e-commerce - generally known as internet-based shopping - that is supposed to represent a threat. Will the web eventually drag people away from existing shopping temples and those currently being constructed? Specialists believe that this will not happen, but are warning shopping centre owners to look for solutions to secure the attractiveness and success of their still popular malls.Finally we take a look at Warsaw. The developers operating in this city have started to dream of a new Manhattan once again. Wherever you look, there are plans to build new skyscrapers. Will they see the light of day? We do not know at this point. However, it is probably a good thing that there are people who want to turn these dreams into real projects in times when the media continues to bombard us with endless news about the crisis every day.

Radosław Górecki
Deputy Editor