Fair for the region
For the first time, they can stand tall as genuine members of the wider European market and not just fledglings grappling with endless bureaucracy and chaos. Now they can look the rest of the continent in the eye.
Poland's size as a market should anyway afford it respect and hopefully it will get more of this than at MiPiM 2003, when visitors were frequently diverted by the stands from Russia. While its politicians argue the toss about the conditions of Poland's entry into the EU, sometimes the sentiment on the real estate market here has been to "wait and see what happens after we join the EU" and it seems occasionally that a kind of torpor has been allowed to set in. Caution has become a familiar watchword, whilst apparently further to the east in Moscow, conference rooms and restaurants swarm with deals. But thankfully, some way from Warsaw's CBD and its hectic, yet perhaps predictable routines, are young, energetic Poles, who want to see their region become the talking point of the new era.
They're called redNet and at the moment work from very cramped office space on ul. Baśniowa, just where Warsaw erupts into a sprawl of tower blocks into the suburbs. But they're also personified by two young men with some experience in the real estate market who want to do for Warsaw what the major property fairs do for the towns where they are held.
President and Vice President respectively, Robert Chojnacki and Michał Kosyrz, (along with the currently homebound young mother Magdalena Kwaśniewska) set up a residential property web site four years ago, which they claim was the first of its kind in Warsaw, to relieve customers of the burden of traipsing around town to find an apartment. The success of that then allowed them to cater for more commercial forms of real estate, such as offices, warehouses, land offers and shopping centers and then venture into the publication of property market reports. They also helped organize various residential-based local real estate fairs, but for the first time this year, they are to launch the first ever event with an exclusively Central European flavor.
On May 13-14 the redNet-inspired 'Central Europe Property & Investment Fair' (CEPIF) will be held at the Palace of Culture in Warsaw. Until then, the organizers will be striving to convince numerous people that the time has come for a property fair for this region alone. They are at pains, however, to point out that they don't want the forum to become a Polish event where the neighbors are simply invited to come and watch. Lokale was indeed obliged to arrange its meeting with Chojnacki and Kosyrz in some haste, as the former was about to dash off from Warsaw for a whirlwind tour of Central Europe's other capital cities, in order to convince various players in these markets that they should make space in their diaries for May 13 and 14, to ensure that CEPIF becomes genuinely regional and not just national.
The real estate calendar already has plenty of fairs for property people to choose from: MiPiM, Meeting Point in Barcelona and EXPO Real in Munich are but three, the first being way out in the lead in terms of the numbers attracted. It was in fact as visitors to these events that the inspiration grew within the redNet pioneers to try and establish their own fair in Warsaw. At these Western European-based events they saw, "that only the biggest Polish companies and cities were represented," according to Chojnacki, and they realized that other small to medium-sized firms and towns were missing out on the vital opportunity of making important business contacts.
Because of its proximity, it is the German fair which can be a particular draw for the Central European community and EXPO Real, one senses, will be CEPIF's main competitor. This is perhaps why Chojnacki plays down the Munich event's international appeal. Of his own project he says: "We don't want to give the impression that this is a national fair, as is the case with EXPO Real," he says, where the dominant language and market participants are German. "At the first ever EXPO Real, there were only fourteen exhibitors from outside Germany," he adds. "We'd like to have more," says Chojnacki.
The choice of venue is a curious one, though perfectly understandable, given that no professional exhibition space as yet exists in the center of Warsaw. The paradoxical symbolism of the Palace of Culture as home to Central Europe's first property fair, just a fortnight after most of its nations will have entered the EU, couldn't be stronger. A 'gift' from Joseph Stalin to the Polish capital will host a gathering which will greet a new era.
Chojnacki is naturally very aware of the irony but points out that it does have a precedent: "The Warsaw Stock Exchange was first organized in the former headquarters of the Communist Party. Yes, holding CEPIF in the Palace of Culture is a paradox, but it also signifies changing times."
If Lokale's random quick fire survey of the market in Warsaw is anything to go by, however, the redNet people will need to turn up the sound on their publicity machine. No one we spoke to had heard of the upcoming fair for a start, and most voiced more than a little skepticism about its potential success. "It will be damn difficult to get a position on this market," says Michał Sadowski, of architects APA Wojciechowski. "I think that there is a danger that there can be too many fairs that overlap," says Jonathan Cohen of Gleeds Polska, who also adds that EXPO Real already has enough of a Central European influence to be going on with. He does, however, concede that if CEPIF is, "well-organised, well-priced and well-attended, it could be successful." A spokesperson from Skanska Property Poland admitted an interest but also cautioned: "We are still thinking about participating but haven't made any decision yet. As this is the first fair of its type, we would like to have more details." Jason Sharman of King Sturge believes that CEPIF will have to do more than attract the smaller players on the market but that if the organization and quality of participants are up to scratch, "it could be more useful than MiPiM or EXPO."
Poland's size as a market should anyway afford it respect and hopefully it will get more of this than at MiPiM 2003, when visitors were frequently diverted by the stands from Russia. While its politicians argue the toss about the conditions of Poland's entry into the EU, sometimes the sentiment on the real estate market here has been to "wait and see what happens after we join the EU" and it seems occasionally that a kind of torpor has been allowed to set in. Caution has become a familiar watchword, whilst apparently further to the east in Moscow, conference rooms and restaurants swarm with deals. But thankfully, some way from Warsaw's CBD and its hectic, yet perhaps predictable routines, are young, energetic Poles, who want to see their region become the talking point of the new era.
They're called redNet and at the moment work from very cramped office space on ul. Baśniowa, just where Warsaw erupts into a sprawl of tower blocks into the suburbs. But they're also personified by two young men with some experience in the real estate market who want to do for Warsaw what the major property fairs do for the towns where they are held.
President and Vice President respectively, Robert Chojnacki and Michał Kosyrz, (along with the currently homebound young mother Magdalena Kwaśniewska) set up a residential property web site four years ago, which they claim was the first of its kind in Warsaw, to relieve customers of the burden of traipsing around town to find an apartment. The success of that then allowed them to cater for more commercial forms of real estate, such as offices, warehouses, land offers and shopping centers and then venture into the publication of property market reports. They also helped organize various residential-based local real estate fairs, but for the first time this year, they are to launch the first ever event with an exclusively Central European flavor.
On May 13-14 the redNet-inspired 'Central Europe Property & Investment Fair' (CEPIF) will be held at the Palace of Culture in Warsaw. Until then, the organizers will be striving to convince numerous people that the time has come for a property fair for this region alone. They are at pains, however, to point out that they don't want the forum to become a Polish event where the neighbors are simply invited to come and watch. Lokale was indeed obliged to arrange its meeting with Chojnacki and Kosyrz in some haste, as the former was about to dash off from Warsaw for a whirlwind tour of Central Europe's other capital cities, in order to convince various players in these markets that they should make space in their diaries for May 13 and 14, to ensure that CEPIF becomes genuinely regional and not just national.
The real estate calendar already has plenty of fairs for property people to choose from: MiPiM, Meeting Point in Barcelona and EXPO Real in Munich are but three, the first being way out in the lead in terms of the numbers attracted. It was in fact as visitors to these events that the inspiration grew within the redNet pioneers to try and establish their own fair in Warsaw. At these Western European-based events they saw, "that only the biggest Polish companies and cities were represented," according to Chojnacki, and they realized that other small to medium-sized firms and towns were missing out on the vital opportunity of making important business contacts.
Because of its proximity, it is the German fair which can be a particular draw for the Central European community and EXPO Real, one senses, will be CEPIF's main competitor. This is perhaps why Chojnacki plays down the Munich event's international appeal. Of his own project he says: "We don't want to give the impression that this is a national fair, as is the case with EXPO Real," he says, where the dominant language and market participants are German. "At the first ever EXPO Real, there were only fourteen exhibitors from outside Germany," he adds. "We'd like to have more," says Chojnacki.
The choice of venue is a curious one, though perfectly understandable, given that no professional exhibition space as yet exists in the center of Warsaw. The paradoxical symbolism of the Palace of Culture as home to Central Europe's first property fair, just a fortnight after most of its nations will have entered the EU, couldn't be stronger. A 'gift' from Joseph Stalin to the Polish capital will host a gathering which will greet a new era.
Chojnacki is naturally very aware of the irony but points out that it does have a precedent: "The Warsaw Stock Exchange was first organized in the former headquarters of the Communist Party. Yes, holding CEPIF in the Palace of Culture is a paradox, but it also signifies changing times."
If Lokale's random quick fire survey of the market in Warsaw is anything to go by, however, the redNet people will need to turn up the sound on their publicity machine. No one we spoke to had heard of the upcoming fair for a start, and most voiced more than a little skepticism about its potential success. "It will be damn difficult to get a position on this market," says Michał Sadowski, of architects APA Wojciechowski. "I think that there is a danger that there can be too many fairs that overlap," says Jonathan Cohen of Gleeds Polska, who also adds that EXPO Real already has enough of a Central European influence to be going on with. He does, however, concede that if CEPIF is, "well-organised, well-priced and well-attended, it could be successful." A spokesperson from Skanska Property Poland admitted an interest but also cautioned: "We are still thinking about participating but haven't made any decision yet. As this is the first fair of its type, we would like to have more details." Jason Sharman of King Sturge believes that CEPIF will have to do more than attract the smaller players on the market but that if the organization and quality of participants are up to scratch, "it could be more useful than MiPiM or EXPO."
