Buying a Property in Eastern Europe for Dummies‰
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Buying a Property in Eastern Europe FOR DUMmIES‰ Buying a Property in Eastern Europe FOR DUMmIES‰ by Colin Barrow Buying a Property in Eastern Europe For Dummies® Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ England E-mail (for orders and customer service enquires): [email protected] Visit our Home Page on www.wileyeurope.com Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex, England Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or trans- mitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or other- wise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. 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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-7047-6 ISBN-10: 0-7645-7047-1 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell and Bain Ltd, Glasgow 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 About the Author Colin Barrow has an extensive background in European property and works across a diverse range of related industries. He has researched most interna- tional property markets and has first hand experience of buying, building, developing, and selling over two hundred properties in overseas markets. He has written a score of books on property and other wealth creation matters including the bestselling Starting a Business For Dummies. Author’s Acknowledgements I would like to thank Jason Dunne, Samantha Clapp, and Martin Tribe for the opportunity to write this book – as well as their help, encouragement, guidance, and sound advice on what to omit as much as what to include; an inevitable problem when such a wide landscape as the European property market has to be distilled to its essence. Their tireless work, and that of every- one else who works behind the scenes at Wiley, have both my gratitude and admiration for their efforts in making this book possible as well as punctual. Outside of the team at Wiley, Jane Hoskyn helped with the structure for the country chapters and Brian Kramer did the rewriting and development that contributed much to bringing some dry facts to life. The technical reviewer kept me up to the mark and added greatly to my knowledge as the book devel- oped. He has my thanks and ultimately yours too for ensuring the accuracy of the thousands of facts that go to making up and appreciation of these markets. Not withstanding the many people who deserve and have my gratitude any faults or failings in the text remain mine and mine alone. I would certainly appreciate your feedback as you travel the path that I have taken around what has become known as ‘New Europe’. Any tips, pointers and advice that can be incorporated into future editions would be a service to future readers. [e-mail: [email protected]] Publisher’s Acknowledgements We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Composition Services Media Development Project Coordinator: Jennifer Theriot Executive Project Editor: Martin Tribe Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Content Editor: Steve Edwards Stephanie D. Jumper, Julie Trippetti Commissioning Editor: Samantha Clapp Proofreaders: Laura Albert, Susan Moritz, Development Editor: Brian Kramer Charles Spencer Copy Editor: Sally Lansdell Indexer: Techbooks Proofreader: Colette Holden Technical Editor: Dr Andrew Cartwright, Central European University, Budapest Executive Editor: Jason Dunne Cover Photo: © Nik Wheeler/CORBIS Cartoons: Ed McLachlan Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director, Consumer Dummies Kristin A. Cocks, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies Michael Spring, Vice President and Publisher, Travel Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel Publishing for Technology Dummies Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services Contents at a Glance Introduction .................................................................1 Part I: Getting Prepared................................................7 Chapter 1: Taking the Plunge: Choosing to Buy Property.............................................9 Chapter 2: Deciding to Buy in Eastern and Central Europe........................................19 Chapter 3: Researching the Market................................................................................29 Chapter 4: Weighing Up the Risks ..................................................................................47 Part II: Examining the New Europeans..........................67 Chapter 5: Czech Republic..............................................................................................69 Chapter 6: Hungary ..........................................................................................................93 Chapter 7: Poland...........................................................................................................117 Chapter 8: Slovenia ........................................................................................................139 Chapter 9: Cyprus...........................................................................................................161 Chapter 10: Malta and Gozo..........................................................................................183 Chapter 11: The Baltic States........................................................................................203 Part III: Reviewing the Hopefuls................................225 Chapter 12: Bulgaria.......................................................................................................227 Chapter 13: Croatia ........................................................................................................249 Chapter 14: Romania......................................................................................................275 Chapter 15: Turkey.........................................................................................................297 Chapter 16: Ukraine........................................................................................................325 Part IV: Getting Comfortable .....................................347 Chapter 17: Becoming a Tax Exile ................................................................................349 Chapter 18: Financing Offshore ....................................................................................363