Interpreting economic figures is a vital part of buying property in a foreign market, especially if it is an emerging one. Remember this: the goose lays the golden egg when a particular economy is improving from a low base, its growth is strong and sustainable, and when local access to mortgages is limited. The main reason why property prices have gone up so far in mature markets is widespread access to cheap home loans. In Hungary, only one person in 25 is eligible to borrow money from a bank to buy a house, and the picture across the rest of Eastern Europe is broadly similar. Visit web pages such as that of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which has a brilliantly useful site, with free downloads assessing markets in a wide range of countries (www.oecd.org)