Real estate developer Gigant Construct, held by five Icelandic businessmen, is developing several residential projects in the Eastern part of the Capital, in the Titan district.

Gigant Construct, which is involved in developing three residential projects in the Titan district, Eastern Bucharest, has, for 8 million euros, acquired another three plots in the area, where it intends to build around 1,500 homes, following a 150 million-euro investment.

"Our original plan was to finalise 1,000 apartments by 2010, but I think we will exceed this target. Our investments continue to focus on the Capital's 3rd sector and we will not expand onto other areas of Bucharest until they are as developed as this one," said Corneliu Serban, general manager of the company.

Gigant Construct is a company held by five Icelandic businesspeople, who noticed business opportunities in Romania following a visit to Bucharest. "I was working in tourism at the time, and, within 4-5 months of giving them a tour of the city, we started the first project in Bucharest," added Serban.

Gura Siriului Residence, the first project developed by Gigant Construct, consists of 62 housing units, and has already been delivered. The company's projects became increasingly extensive, with Pallady Residence, a project set to be delivered this year, comprises of 122 housing units. The company's largest project so far, Pallady Towers, has been started this year, and will entail around 400 apartments.

"For Pallady Towers, we have allocated a promotional budget worth one million euros, while the first two projects were sold almost by themselves. For the first two projects, we relied on funding from Alpha Bank, whereas for Pallady Towers, we contracted a credit worth 25 million euros from Credit Europe Bank," said Serban.

The Pallady Towers project is built by Cominco, while for the fi