Romanian real estate market felt a glimpse of the financial crisis, prompting developers to abort construction of their real estate projects. Of over 8,000 housing units expected to be delivered, many of them were put on the waiting list.
“The year had a forceful start. The first signs of the downtrend whipped into shape in early summer. Subsequently, more and more projects, whose delivery dates were established for the second half of the year, were put off. In parallel, starting with the second half of this year, the market of the old housing units began to take a nosedive on a monthly basis,” said Adrian Ghimpau, director of Coldwell Banker Affiliates Romania’s residential department.
According to Coldwell’s representative, we cannot yet estimate the exact number of housing units delivered this year, as it will be revealed in January 2009, most likely. Nevertheless, players can only forecast the number of units to be delivered in 2008.
“Approximately 8,000 units were expected to be delivered in 2008 in Bucharest and in adjacent areas. The gap between the number of scheduled units and the ones delivered was triggered by the sagging demand, as certain developers slowed down construction pace and their financing were blocked,” Ghimpau stressed.
What will happen to the delayed projects?
One of the developers that postponed the delivery of a residential project was the Greek-based Quality Living Developers (QLD). He announced it would deliver the Waterfront project in fall, a residential compound located in north-eastern Bucharest, near Tei Lake. The project would have included 16 mansions and 208 apartments, in nine blocks. In early summer, Nick Stathakis, QLD’s CEO said the construction works had started and they would most likely complete by the end of 2010.
“The residential projects postponed until summer are projects for which th
