Business Review

Investments in the Romanian real estate market registered a 32.7 percent increase year-on-year to EUR 320 million in 2011, while the transaction volume in Central Europe (CE) gained 110 percent to EUR 6.1 billion in the same period, according to Cushman & Wakefield property consultancy.

Ovidiu Posirca

Multi-let real estate investment manager Valad has let 9718 sqm in Romania so far this year, the company has announced.In Romania, new lettings and renewals at the A1 Business Park included the Trade Support Group, an archiving specialist, leasing 1,602 sqm for three years, with renewals agreed with Matra, a food distribution company, for five years on 4,272 sqm and Isotek Engineering, a doors and windows manufacturer, on 1,784 sqm. In Domnesti Business Park, a new 2,060 sqm lease was signed with Marelvi, the white goods distributor.

Both overall potential and investor interest are growing in direct proportion with the traffic of foreign and local visitors on the narrow, cobbled streets of Bucharest’s Old Town. Will fashion retailers be the next big thing in this unique part of the city?

Andreea Ceasar

DIY retailer OBI has moved its HQ to Cubic Center, after signing a six-year lease starting with 2012. The new office space has approximately 1,200 sqm, 450 sqm more than the company’s current office space. It is intended to satisfy the company’s long term strategy of expanding and investing to open new stores and expanding its marketing and advertising activity.

Fitness operator World Class has leased 1,000 sqm in America House, the office building owned by French investment fund AEW. The transaction was mediated by Jones Lang LaSalle. World Class will open a fitness facility on the first floor of the building, within the retail gallery where consultancy & other services companies operate.

This year’s edition of MAPIC, the Cannes-based real estate conference focusing on the retail segment, will feature a session on the Romanian retail sector.

OBI Romania and Agricover have signed new lease contracts in Cubic Center, a building owned by Dinu Patriciu Global Services (DPGS). OBI Romania and Agricover Group are joining the other seven tenants (Mercadia Group and Dream Team Catering) in Cubic Center, and raise the building’s occupancy to over 10,000 sqm. The leased spaces are the 5^th and respectively 6^th floor.

Francisc Peli, partner at law firm PeliFilip, does not expect the real estate market to change significantly in the year to come and believes that banks are adopting a rather conservative stance on toxic real estate assets. However, the owners of retail centers are finally seeing consumption rates rise, despite a dramatic plummet in rents in the previous two years.

Ovidiu Posirca

Confusion – this is the word on the lips of every developer, builder and participant in the 11th Romanian Real Estate Market Forum, Realty, organized by Business Review. No one could say with certainty what they expected from the future – maybe just more major change.

Andreea Ceasar

CBRE Group has completed the acquisition of ING Group’s real estate investment management (ING REIM) operations in Europe. The ING REIM operations in Europe, including the ING Real Estate Select global fund of funds business, are being merged with CBRE Group’s existing real estate investment management business, and the combined entity (including the ING REIM Asia operations acquired on October 3, 2011) will operate as CBRE Global Investors, headquartered in Los Angeles.