When East meets West

It was once possible to speak with some confidence in general terms about the Central and Eastern European real estate markets. However, since the financial crisis the picture of the region has radically changed, bringing into question the notion of there being a CEE region at all Nathan North Most of the countries in the region emerged from the communist era at around the same time (1989-91) and had similar levels of development and issues to deal with. Eight of those that were adjudged to have managed the transition to Western democracy best (the Visegrád Group of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, as well as Slovenia and the three Baltic states) were admitted into the EU in 2004, to be followed by Romania and Bulgaria in 2007. Hopes were also once high that Ukraine and the remaining countries of the former Yugoslavia would soon follow suit. Real estate market reports were (and still are) written for the entire region by consultancies, which themselves have CEE depa