Developing holiday homes at the foothills of the mountain in Romania

Two Dutch investors are building a housing mountain resort with a wellness hotel in the middle of pristine nature in Romania.

Dutch investor Gerard Doedee started to search for land in Romania in 2007, when the country joined the EU. He had visited a friend in Cluj-Napoca, and discovered a country he didn’t know much about, but which he came to like. Doedee (pictured below), who changed his 23-year career path from human resources and leadership development to real estate in 2007, searched the web to find other potential investors. This is how he came across Mark Koops, who had been already doing some investments in Romania. They commissioned two Romanians, Lucian Andrei and Horia Halmagi, for a land search. The two Romanians, who later became partners in the project, drafted a shortlist, and Vama Buzaului in central Romania was one of the proposals. The village is located 45 km away from Brasov, at the foothills of the Ciucas Mountains. Its main touristic attraction is the Urlatoarea (Screaming) waterfall. Vama Buzaului is aspiring to become a touristic attraction. The village’s website welcomes visitors with the words of the 39-year old mayor Tiberiu Nicolae Chirilas. “I will fight so that Vama Buzaului can become one of the most beautiful and known places in the country and not only.” *** Before going into real estate, Gerard Doedee had executive jobs in the leadership development and human resources field for 23 years. He had worked for big companies such as Fokker Aircraft, Fuji Photo Film, Vodafone and France Telecom/Casema. In 2007, Gerard took on a different challenge. He started to invest in real estate in Brazil, as well as in Spain and Italy.