Stefan Gheorghiu, the head of the local operations of Austria's Europolis real estate investment fund, considers that the real estate market could see new record deals as of next year. "The value of deals on the real estate market will get higher next year and we will see several acquisitions worth above 100 million euros being concluded by the end of 2007. There will be a period of successive records," stated Stefan Gheorghiu, 33, general manager with Europolis Real Estate Asset Management. In the first half of this year, deals worth above 200 million euros were made on the office market.
The biggest deal on the market was the acquisition of Charles de Gaulle Plaza building by Accession Fund real estate investment fund, managed by Germany's GLL Real Estate, for 80 million euros. The value of this transaction might be topped this year if America House building, owned by Israeli GTC developer, is sold.
Despite the rising number of real estate projects being announced on the market, not all of them are delivered onto the market in the end.
The high number of foreign developers and of investment funds with a track record on the real estate market having entered Romania in recent years has generated steady growth of investments on the real estate market. However, the domestic market has not followed the trend of neighbouring markets because of price and yield fluctuations witnessed in recent years.
"The real estate market is facing tough competition leading to yield decreases over the following years. We cannot compare Romania with Central and East European markets given that it's been demonstrated over recent years the domestic market has witnessed a different progression compared with Poland, the Czech Republic or Hungary," considers Gheorghiu.
Major foreign players started entering Romania during the 2003-2004 period. "The real estate
