According to a study published by real estate specialist “World Estate,” there are a number of key characteristics of the residential property market in the emerging economies of Eastern Europe that differentiate it sharply from the situation in the West.

Those looking to invest in countries like Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, or even in the former Soviet states, are well advised to keep in mind that their best chances of success are if they keep in mind local and regional realities when looking for purchase properties.

In most Eastern European cities, real estate located in the centre of towns is generally valued higher than properties in central areas of most municipalities in the West.

There are two main reasons for this. Unlike in the West, the majority of newly built shopping malls that have sprung up across the region are built in city centres, rather than on the outskirts or in suburbs. Budapest, for example, has two of the region’s largest malls—the WestEnd and Arena—in or near the centre of the Hungarian capital.

This means that people are drawn to downtown areas, even from the suburbs, and urban sprawl has not led to a massive migration away from central areas. Additionally, the vast majority of historic sites are concentrated in city centres, and these always attract tourists.

Those who buy flats in central Budapest, Bratislava or Prague will probably never have difficulty renting it either on a short-term or long-term basis.

Some of the most successful investments are in holiday apartment rentals; a growing number of tourists prefer to rent a flat and avoid hotels, which are generally much more expensive and also offer cramped living quarters when compared to holiday apartments.