Henrys Leja exudes the kind of confidence only possible for a real estate agent in one of the world's hottest property markets. He works in Riga, the capital of the form-er Soviet republic of Latvia, where property prices are booming, up a heady 40 per cent between July and September last year.

Mr Leja is part of a new generation of fast-talking entrepreneurs growing rich on Latvia's year-on-year economic growth of 12 per cent. For over a decade Latvia, which quit the Soviet Union in 1991, has seen its economy grow and "it just keeps going and going", says Mr Leja.