The finishing line is in sight?

The last few weeks of my life were dominated by two subjects: in the professional arena (no surprises here) it was the real estate sector. In September the industry goes back to work relaxed after the holiday period and puts its nose to the grindstone once more, having the Munich Expo Real fair in view. Privately, it was the subject of the Warsaw Marathon that consumed me. On September 26th, when the latest issue of the magazine goes to press, thousands of runners will be faced with the challenge of overcoming a 42 km route and their own weaknesses. How is it possible to combine these two themes? Let’s try! The Munich meeting of real estate moguls has been associated with the crisis for two years. It was at Expo Real 2008 when the number one subject was the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which had taken place only a few weeks earlier. And then the countdown began to how long it would take before the market revives. It has been two years of struggle, occasionally interspersed with good news, such as: better than expected production figures, strong growth in domestic demand, the odd significant loan agreement indicating a more relaxed approach from the banks... In a similar way marathon runners replenish their liquids and carbohydrates every so many kilometres so that they don’t collapse from exhaustion. As I write this, the end of the race is fast approaching. The sector, although weakened, is already close to the finish line, which hopefully opens up the prospect of at least a few years of modest market development. The best competitor in last year’s Warsaw Marathon managed to cover the route in two hours and twelve minutes. The worst one needed over seven hours. It will probably be similar in the case of the CEE real estate getting itself out of the mire that it fell into. The best will overcome their difficulties in two years, but others will need three, four or perhaps as many as seven years – and this is precisely the subject that we cover in the feature article of the issue, how the industry is coping in the context of investment transactions. Meanwhile, I am keeping my fingers crossed for my friends, including those from our sector, who are running in the Warsaw and Budapest marathons that are taking place on the same day.

EWA ANDRZEJEWSKA
Editor