A Spaniard in the works

EWA ANDRZEJEWSKAEditorEven though it was some time ago, I can still remember the excitement I felt when walking around Polish town halls on the days when attractive city-centre plots were up for auction. Investors would be packed inside tiny office rooms or even in cramped corridors. You could feel the tension in the air as the bidders tabled increasingly dizzying amounts; but it was the Spanish investors who regularly led the field in the furious fight over certain properties, often coming away with the main prizes. The losing parties, together with analysts and other market competitors, later discussed just whose hot Spanish temperament had got the better of them and who would make a profit from the projects to follow. In this latest edition of our magazine, we wonder whether Iberian investors, who are being hurt by the credit crunch at home, will now start retreating from Central and Eastern Europe. And will Martinsa-Fadesa, the first victim of the cris