Living Without the Credit Crunch

I was in London a few weeks ago and it had to be one of the most depressing few days I have ever spent. The city still feels as alive and vibrant as ever but the media are on a mission to make misery the daily message.

I passed newsagents, watched television and listened to the radio but there was no escape. They all wanted to talk about how property prices are going down and how we should all wait for a recession to start … sometime.

The Independent, as always, was pushing hardest. It remains so today with its latest article “House Price Growth at Record Low” announcing UK property has lost 0.3% of it’s value in the last year – disaster! And this has not happened since 2003, a whole five years ago – gasp!

The strangest part of my trip was actually before and after. I spend most of my time in Poland and no one talks about the credit crunch here. Business is growing, properties are selling, wealth is increasing, banks are lending.

The media talk about international politics and affairs but the few stories around the woes of Polish property that were occasionally tagged to the end of the news in the spring evaporated as fast as they formed.

Like so many I have a portfolio of property in the UK and I keep an eye on the headlines of the British papers but to the most part I work in a market that seems totally untouched by global problems.

The banks here never lent recklessly and the government controlled how many properties foreigners could buy so the market did not overheat.

I am living without the credit crunch and working in an upbeat economy. It’s a good feeling and perhaps it’s the reason I am dealing with more and more English speakers who are looking at moving to Poland – for work, for retirement, for a better lifestyle. Or perhaps to escape the depressing atmosphere which hangs over the Western world!