Investors put EUR 410 mln in major Romanian real estate projects in H1

The value of investment deals on the Romanian real estate market in the first half of 2019 amounted to approximately EUR 410 million, up 6% compared to the same period last year (when it was EUR 386 mln), real estate consultancy firm Cushman & Wakefield Echinox estimates.

The modest growth rate was a result of the uncertainty among banks prompted by the “greed tax” announced in December 2018, but, as the executive significantly sweetened the provisions of the ordinance hence the fiscal burden faced by the banks, the financing was unblocked and more robust expansion is expected in the second half of the year, Tim Wilkinson, Partner, Capital Markets, Cushman & Wakefield Echinox, explained.

The local market attracted about 10% of the total investment volume of EUR 4.1 billion poured in projects in the investment universe formed by Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria (central and eastern European Union members). The most active segment of the domestic market was again that of the office projects, with a share of 53% of the total volume of investments, followed by the retail segment (28%), while the sector of industrial and logistic spaces had a share of 18%.

Regarding the geographical distribution of the projects, Bucharest concentrated 40% of the total real estate investments in Romania, followed by Cluj-Napoca (32%), the rest of the deals being shared among several cities.

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