Lyndon Thomas (pictured) has given his Gwent firm a say in global economic decision-making as the political map of Europe changes. NIGEL JARRETT spoke to him

CHARTERED surveyor Lyndon Thomas is making sure the smaller players in the property business are making waves internationally.

He is proving that British, and specifically Welsh, expertise in land and property dealings are opening up Eastern European and other countries to inward investment.

Mr Thomas, associate partner in Newport chartered surveyors Hutchings and Thomas, has spent a lot of time in the Czech Republic and in Bosnia.

Both countries have problems of readjustment following political and, or, military upheaval.

Now the company, through his accelerating foreign expertise, is advising the World Bank on developments abroad - a noteworthy honour for a company setting an example for much bigger firms of chartered surveyors

Formerly head of property for for the WDA's international division, he became involved in a project to advise the Czech government on its inward investment strategy from a property point of view.

This involved bringing forward industrial units for inward investors and setting up a property model for them with other South Wales companies in a project funded by the European Union.

"It was quite interesting because we were involved in advising a country which until 1989 had been Communist," he said. "A lot of the dereliction we were coming across was from the Communist era."

Because Hutchings and Thomas had been approached by the project leaders - a Cardiff firm who had bid for the work through the European Union - he found himself in a Bohemian town at first, advising the local mayor on plans for bringing forward a large industrial estate near the German and Polish borders.

"That resulted in other requests to look at the Czech Republic because of the succinctness of our advice in bringing forward sites for industrial users, especially inward investors," Mr Thomas said.

"We were asked to do a very large project in Brno involving 1,500 acres. It was really interesting because the land was owned previously by the city council and the Communist military, and involved masterplanning the site for future development.

"The Czechs are going through painful land restitution. Where there were three or four owners under the Communists there turn out to be several hundred now because the area had formerly been strip-farmed, with each strip having a different owner.

"We advised on how to expedite this and how the legal structure might be positioned to assist them. They had no law of compulsory purchase but very large inward investors interested.

"The thing about inward investment is the speed of delivery and we were advising on what we thought were relatively straightforward and simple procedures, but this was something they had never come across before."

The project offered valuable experience and it is hoped a further visit might enable theory to be put into practice.

Moreover, it means Hutchings and Thomas is now looking at several sites there with some of its UK clients.

Then the partner company Mr Thomas was working with in the Republic recommended Hutchings and Thomas for a job advising a department of the World Bank on Bosnia's land strategy following armed conflict there. So off he went.

"The most horrendous things happened out there in the early 1990s but not until I was on the ground seeing it with my own eyes and understanding the complexity of the situation did I realise how bad it was," he said.

The problems were depressingly familiar.

With Communism coming to Yugoslavia after the second world war, title documents to land were not needed because everything was State-owned. The civil war's religious conflicts exacerbated the difficulties.

"Sarajevo is a fantastically-beautiful old town with a great deal of Austrian and Turkish influence as well as Tito's high rises but every tall building has been destroyed by shell fire," he said.

"So you have this mixture of dereliction and you get the impression that you are in a dangerous situation.

"We were taken to their second city. Regulations issued by the World Bank meant we weren't allowed to go out beyond daylight hours, and we had to travel under convoy with World Bank representatives.

"We were trying to pick our way through something we take for granted - proving ownership of land - and how you put in place a system where foreign companies are comfortable with the fact that their investment is going to be secure."

Mr Thomas said the situation could be hugely inhibiting for foreign companies wanting to invest. It was like the early part of the 19th century when Britain set up a Land Commission to look at property issues relating to law and ownership.

The problem in these countries is what becomes ground zero?

Do you start in 1939, 1989 or now when considering changes in the rules of ownership and title?

Bosnia's is a long-term problem. The Czech Republic simply needs laws that can offer quick and 'clean' title and confer formal compulsory-purchase powers on government, hitherto enshrined only in state monopoly where there was no other kind of transaction possible.

Now, on the back of its overseas 'adventures', the company is set to advise the World Bank again