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It may not have the cachet of the Czech Republic or the coast of Croatia, but Poland is being tipped as a better bet for the canny property investor. With a fast-growing economy, huge inward investment from private sources and the EU, and a booming tourism sector, Poland has been billed as one of the best locations on earth to make money from property.

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More importantly from the investor’s viewpoint, Poland is becoming popular with tourists. The number of visitors to Krakow, for example, doubled to three million last year. The Baltic Sea has several resorts, and the Tatra mountains in the south have good skiing. As a weekend destination, Krakow is ideal: three hours’ flight from the UK, architecturally and historically rich, and small enough to cover in a weekend.

Nicholas Scott is one Englishman who has succumbed to the city’s appeal. “I moved out to Poland a few years ago, and I was planning to spend just a couple of months in Krakow,” he says. He fell in love with the city and decided to buy an apartment off-plan for €100,000 (£67,000). The one-bedroom flat in a 19th-century building is in the heart of Kasimierz, the old Jewish quarter of Kra kow, and is let to tourists for €560 (£380) a week in the peak summer season. “There are no problems renting it out,” Scott says. “There are a lot of tourists coming to Krakow. It’s become very popular for stag nights — especially the higher-end stag dos — there are lots of City boys coming over here.”

David Nicholls, of the foreign exchange specialist Moneycorp, says more tourists should translate into higher yields for canny investors. “The boom in tourism prompted by the growth in the number of low-cost flights direct to Poland from many European cities means that short-term lets in cities such as Krakow and Warsaw are in demand, which provides an attractive income stream for investors.”

Having said that, investors should not expect very high yields; in city centres they average about 5 to 6 per cent.

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Source: the TimeOnline