- Wealthy Poles are invading the border regions of Germany
and snapping up properties at rock bottom prices in what estate agents
call a dramatic reversal of historical roles.
-
- The widespread expectation that after Poland joined the
European Union its cheap homes would be bought up by Germans has been turned
on its head as the Poles search for "lebensraum" in the west.
-
- For centuries Germans have headed east - as knights,
traders or, most notoriously, builders of a Third Reich. Now the Poles
are going in the other direction, not just as migrant labourers but as
house buyers.
-
- They are attracted by average prices of around £12,000
for a family home in good repair. A run-down cottage can be bought for
as little as £200 and a "chic manor house with indoor pool"
comes at £220,000
-
- The trend says as much about the desperate economic state
of east Germany and the exodus of locals as it does about the Poles' entrepreneurial
zeal and desire to catch up with their richer neighbours after decades
of communism.
-
- Michal Wojtysiak recently became the owner of a quaint,
century-old building in Penkun.
-
- The 42-year-old Polish catering manager bought the village
butchers, family house and florist's all for a ridiculous £3,700.
-
- A few streets away a retired doctor, Andrzej-Jerzy Wroblewski,
62, proudly strolled the grounds of the derelict Apostolic church, now
his for £970, as is the old bakery nearby, a steal, even by Polish
standards at £730.
-
- Both are from Szczecin, 10 miles from Penkun, a shipbuilding
boom town whose citizens can no longer afford to live there.
-
- More and more are buying property in eastern Germany
and commuting to their homeland over what was once a tightly-controlled
border.
-
- "I would pay at least four times this if I was fortunate
enough to find anything similar on the outskirts of Szczecin," said
Mr Wojtysiak. He expects to spend £8,000 on his property before he
can move in.
-
- Penkun is not a rundown dump but a picturesque village
flanked by two lakes and a peach-coloured castle.
-
- Like most towns in former communist east Germany, it
was thoroughly renovated four years ago and has a modern sewerage system,
new power cables and freshly-plastered facades.
-
- On the surface it does not look economically depressed.
But the money spent on its revival has failed to deter two thirds of Penkuners
from moving elsewhere and leaving a third of local houses empty.
-
- "The properties on offer are nothing less than giveaways,
even if they need a little investment," said Magdalena Pysz, a Polish
estate agent.
-
- She has sold seven houses and rented out 10 since the
local authority began targeting Poles as potential buyers in November.
-
- "The point is to have someone living in them, who
will stop them from going to ruin and might breathe a bit of life back
into communities virtually bereft of young people.
-
- "The Poles love the Prussian order, the cleanliness,
the lack of corruption and the neat, cobbled streets."
-
- As he pored over the sales contract, Mr Wojtysiak was
amazed to discover that the Germans had bent over backwards to lure him
to Penkun.
-
- As long as he drops a plan to replace wooden window frames
with PVC, the state will pay him 40 per cent of his renovation costs even
if Polish labourers do the work.
-
- "I think I might be able to stretch to their request,"
he said with a grin.
-
- The campaign's publicity proclaims: "I study in
Poland but live in Germany, hey, how about you?"
-
- This has attracted most interest from professionals and
their families.
-
- "All of a sudden, rather than the feared cheap labour
the Germans expected, Poles are coming with the money and giving the area
a sense of hope," said Miss Pysz.
-
- Worries that locals would resent the newcomers from the
east have so far proved unfounded.
-
- Irmgard Prinz, 76, said: "We welcome the Poles with
open arms. So many people have already left - doctors, dentists, the butcher,
young people.
-
- "This town, which was our pride and joy, is going
to die out unless we let them come."
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.
-
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtm
|
