Letter from President

Dear Sir/ Madam,

The Congress on Housing Finance in the Central and Eastern European countries, is organized by the Polish Bank Association every year, as a platform of discussion between experts and institutions which activities are connected with the real estate finance market in the CEE countries. The VI Congress will be a great opportunity to summarize and draw conclusions from the current effects of the global financial crisis.

What is noteworthy, world economies dealt already with the crisis which afflicted them and many other countries representing different levels of economic development. One of the features of the current situation is decrease in pace of the economic growth, decrease in the GDP level, increase in unemployment and decrease in purchasing power of society. This is reflected by the increasingly optimistic forecasts of development, which is also evinced in the growing scale of financing the housing market.

Worth mentioning is the fact that the crisis has touched the CEE countries in different territorial aspect; the extent and depth of ongoing economic processes, which is showed by the situation in Poland and some other CEE countries that have endured the crisis very well and even experienced economic growth. Participants of the previous Congress emphasized that the key to ensure further stable growth on the real estate market will be to elaborate solutions to challenges we face in such areas as:

• Strengthening the role and activity of government and self-government in supporting housing industry.
• Ensuring long-term refinancing for mortgages.
• Stimulating and maintaining the growth of production potential in the construction sector.

• Rebuilding of common trust between the real estate market participants for the safety of real estate market and its financing.

Traditionally, during the Congress we will present the new PBA publications:

• "Report on Housing Loans and Real Estate Transaction Prices in Poland", drawn up on the basis of the AMRON and SARFiN databases, showing the performance of the banking sector in the area of housing loans, and

• book entitled "Credit Risk on Mortgage Loans. Modeling and Management", which we intend to give each participant and address to the representatives of financial institutions from the CEE and EU countries.

The VII Congress will be held under the auspices of the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure. We will have a great pleasure to discuss the housing market problems with representatives of Polish regulators and supervisory authorities. Many representatives of different European banking organizations and other banking/ insurance institutions, as well as representatives of the real estate finance sector from the CEE countries confirmed their participation in the VII Congress which will give a great opportunity to exchange experiences and opinions between different environments at the more and less official levels. 

Kind regards,

Krzysztof Pietraszkiewicz