Romania ranks 3rd in CEE in real estate transactions value in 2007
08 April 2008
Last year Romania has ranked third in Central and Eastern Europe (excluding Russia) when it comes to the value of real estate transactions, with a total of EUR 2.2 billion (approximately 20 per cent of the regional volume), according to a report released by the Jones Lang LaSalle company.
Romania was surpassed by Poland and the Czech Republic. ‘Romania has been the star of the region this year (2007- editor’s note), with an investment hike of 144 per cent, the investments reaching a total volume of EUR 2.2 billion’ the report reads.
In Romania, close to half of the transactions have consisted of retail segment properties, 34 per cent of office spaces, 8 per cent of hotel spaces and 8 per cent of industrial spaces.
‘Romania is starting to increasingly meet the acquisition criteria of investment funds that are active in Central and Eastern Europe’ according to the report.
The LaSalle analysts pointed out that the banks have started to favour transactions that surpass EUR 100 million. ‘Investors that do not benefit from strong relations with the banks have a hard time obtaining the financing, with several investor groups being left outside the real-estate market for this reason, at least until an improvement in financing conditions is registered’ the authors of the study state.
In what concerns the output, its downfall has stopped in the last quarter of last year, with investor expectations for 2008 pointing out to a growth from a level below 6 per cent to a level of 6 to 6.25 per cent.
At this level Bucharest maintains a 35 to 65 percentage point difference compared to Prague and Warsaw’ read the report.
At Central and Eastern European level, the lack of liquidity has significantly reduced the number of investors interested in real estate acquisitions in the first quarter of 2008.
For the first half of the year, the LaSalle analysts estimated a lower level of regional real estate transactions compared to last year, on the backdrop of the investors' reserved attitude towards the decisions to sell or buy.