More ino on Minsk&Belarus.
Thanks to Border Land & East Explorer for the info posted.
Yes Minsk &Belarus in general hold some potential, if looking for long term returns.
Found this link, which shows some actual figures on various costs & prices, including rents & real Estate.
[url]http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Belarus.[/url]
Minsk must have been on the mony laundering &investment trail of a lot of Unsavoury Characters from the Middle East including Israel, as well as I am sure some honest folk, who are just trying to start a new life in a European country, even if it is Belarus.
When I was there, I was told, that a lot of the Hotels, casinos new apatment blocks were foreign owned.
When the problems in that part of the world started, a lot of cash was withdrawn from the banking system, causing the free fall of the be rouble.
I read, that even the the present Foreign Minister of Israel (Avigador Liberman, born in Moldova, and immegrated to Israel in 1986, and worked for a while as a Night club bouncer there) , loves holidaying in Belarus. So much, that he invested some money there.
For this, he is under investigation in Israel for money Laundering.
Owning property in Belarus.
[QUOTE=Borderland; 1246541]Thanks for the info EE.
As for owning property: it's virtually impossible for foreigners except if you're Russian. The Belarus property market is also vastly over priced. Apartments in Minsk or even smaller towns sell for more then they do in EU capitol cities such as Budapest or Sofia. And since rents are low you can't make a decent return (I investigated the idea a while back ). There is a plan I've had for a while though: You can buy country cottages (Izba) for $1000 US if they are far enough away from Minsk. You'd have to put it into a local friend's name but if you then spent another couple of thousand dollars you'd have a fully 'remonted' country cottage in a beautiful part of the countryside which you could use as a place to bring your conquests to for weekend parties. In the summer especially it would be a lot of fun with local lakes and rivers to swim in and fish and a steady stream of university students looking to escape the monotony of life on the local Kolkhoz on their days off. You could give English lessons in return for Russian ones and soon get your language skills up to scratch. Just a little dream of mine.[/QUOTE].
Bumping this thread a bit, before it goes quiet again.
According to this, any Foreigner from any country, can buy property in Belarus.
[url]http://www.prlog.org/11756966-buying-houses-in-minsk-belarus-for-foreigners.html.[/url]
And this is dated late Dec. 2011.
But this (Izba) country cottage seems to be very cheap.
Would be great for summer parties, even taking a girl there from outside Belarus.
Share the $$ expenses & The Fun.
[QUOTE=Borderland; 1250715]Hey Jojosun,
Good find with the last link you posted. They say they have long term lets for $350 a month in Minsk, however I don't know if they would consider 1 month as long term or if you would need to commit to renting it for six months / a year. Out of interest how much are people on this forum paying for apartment rental in Minsk on average? Most agencies catering to foreigners are usually advertising their lets by the night and charging about $60. That would mean (without bargaining) you'd be paying about $1800 per month which I'm presuming nobody is foolish enough to do. I'd be happy to pay $500 US for a month for a decently located one bed apartment and with bills included. Doable?[/QUOTE]You could take it on a long term basis & have one or 2 girls to share it with you.
Great way to meet girls in Minsk & share most of the expenses & fun + networking.
But that means you need to keep going back to Minsk?