Ive just paid a small deposit to reserve a run down house with 20000 sqm of land. Within 2 km of a main highway, 45 km to the sandy eaches and airport of Parnu and 45 km to an airportin Viljandi. Just North of the border with Latvia.

The price £17350 including Taxes and Agents fees!

Small country so change and development can be implemented fast. By 2008 the whole nation will be able to connect to the internet via any network using 3G system.

Still a poor country but this is rapidly changing.
Economy grew by 9.6% last yr.
Frank Knight stated in April that Estonia is the worlds fastest growing property market.
Closeby Scandinavian countries are moving industry to Estonia.
Prices rose by 28% in 2005 BUT HIS HAS YET TO REALLY RIPPLE OUT OF THE MAIN POPULATION CENTRES.

Estonia's inward investment is higher than any other European nation when measured against population size.

The radical FLAT TAX (and other Tax instruments) are drawing investment in.

SUMMARY - its nice and safe as property is centrally registered with Title details, its close and its well on its way to becomming a real powerhouse economy.
Property is very cheap especially away from Tallinn.

Taiwan / Hongkong are small but that didnt stop them!

Any links would be welcome

I can see your investment is in the land. A run down property on this site will have little if any value. (Location and Estonian preference for new build / renovated property with water, gas, electric etc.)

At that price you can't go far wrong. Interested to hear if you have visited the site or had it checked out by a professional.

The plot size and its position close to the main highway attracted me. Being close to a main highway means the property is more accesible in the long winter months and also means utilities are within reach. Plots this size with utilities already in place were more expensive. Im prepared to gamble that utilities will be connectable to this site given the big state drive to get the whole nations infrastructure modernised. They have a very Scandinavian outlook on life from what I can gather, and modernisation of infrastructure seems to be driving them at a rate of knots.

As for being checked by a professional, Im not going to bother at this price. £17350 is the sort of sum people spend on a car thats absolutely guaranteed to decrease in value!
At the very least I will own a great place to take my Boys camping!

One negative aspect is the low population density. An area the size of Denmark with a fifth of the population.
Having said that a lot of the land cannot be built upon as its boggy.
I also envisage a lot of immigration given the amount of business investment Estonia is attracting (highest in Europe proportionate to population size). Many Fins are settling there.

Perhaps Hungary or Poland would be better investments given there much greater population densities. Having said that I see Estoonia becomming the European Silicon Valley.

I hope your acquisition goes smoothly and that you have a good pay out not too far down the line.

Watch out for bears if you do camping there!

I think this will be a longterm hold.

Are you considering any other investments? I still have Sloveina in my mind subject to finances. 5 x the population density of Estonia and property close to the Hungarian border is dirt cheap.

I'm keeping an eye out for opportunities but will likely restrict myself to either an ISA wrapper for shares in funds that invest abroad or a small piece of well located land - Estonia being most appealing location. The latter will be simplest.

Hey Soup, I couldnt beleive the price of appartments in Estonia located away from Tallinn. £5000 - £10000 for what looked nice clean flats. Unbeleivable really.

You mean like this ESTONIA FLAT

Don't know where the fcuk it is like, but cant go wrong for £5k?

Exactly.

Agents tell me a lot of UK FTBs have been buying in Estonia the last 2 years with the aim of using the capital gain to form thier UK deposit.

dogbox - you mates with Darren Goodson?

Estonia Expert

Thanks Dogbox. I know prices are a lot cheaper away from Tallinn and indeed other large conurbations, but the view I took away after two visits to Estnia was that land banking was the way to go. My preference was for in and around Tallinn, though as you know, prices are much higher there.