It’s probably best to start this blog with a bit of scene setting. Having been here for a little over six weeks I’ve had a chance to do a bit of acclimatising, so here we go:
Impressions of Kyiv – Good looking city for the most part, in various places there are some beautiful buildings, monuments and parks and the views across the Dnipro River are fantastic.
However, with little or no parking restrictions the car dominates not only the streets, but also the pavement, so the risk of being run-over is not just confined to crossing the road.
I feel I should mention the weather, which in the mornings is getting to the ice-cream headache sort of cold, it’s obviously going to get colder, so I’ll have to think of some appropriate terminology when it does.
Aside from the global meltdown, Ukraine has its own local issues to deal with, but the general attitude of the average Kyivite is fairly relaxed as they are no strangers to market challenges– life goes on as normal.
We’ve had some fluctuations in exchange rates over the past two weeks which led to a lumpier mattress at home and the forthcoming elections are creating passionate scenes in the parliament.
My impressions of the real estate market is that there is an acute shortage of class A offices and retail, so when the liquidity returns the market really has the potential to bounce back quickly.