The people in Bucharest that did not leave the city preferred the energy drinks offered by marathon organisers to a hot cup of coffee and a home offer presented for the fifth time in a month.

"Nothing happened. We didn't even gather contacts. I believe this happened because the event was not covered by the media. I haven't seen any media people here," says George Dimitriu, a consultant with PYF Real Estate, which promotes Obor Towers apartment complex in Bucharest and that was present at the Condominium apartment fair organised at Sala Palatului, Bucharest at the end of last week.

On Sunday, at 1 p.m., several hundreds of Bucharest inhabitants were still running on Calea Victoriei to close to Sala Palatului in the second edition of Bucharest marathon that attracted, according to organisers, more than 4,000 runners, despite the cold weather.

At the same time, the organisers of the real estate fair could not make an estimate on the number of visitors in the four days of the fair. "(...) What seems more important to me is not the number but the quality of the visitors, which is shown by the impact the exhibitors had at their booths. Conditions are very difficult compared with previous years. No loans are granted, there are no new projects. This is the market at this moment," stated Felicia Iordache, managing partner with Plus Media, one of the event's organisers.

According to the data on the event website, tariffs for the exhibition of a company in the fair start from 860 RON/square metre (200 euros/square metre) for a standard stand, but, according to organisers, discounts went as high as 50%.

This was the second edition of Condominium fair this year, after an event organised in spring, but many other real estate events have also been organised in recent weeks, at Palatul Copiilor, Palatul Parlamentului or World Trade Center, which has cro