Therefore at the end of June, the value of real estate transactions involving commercial assets – offices, retail, industrial – remained at the level of EUR 116 million, level registered at the end of March.
Second quarter of last year also registered same downfall regarding real estate transactions, with only EUR 25 million volumes. Regarding first semester, this year registered a slight decrease compared to last year, considering the transaction value of January-June 2012, of EUR 123 million.
The consultants are optimistic in regard to the real estate investment sector, especially for the end of the year.
"There are some transactions pending, which will probably complete towards the end of the year. The reasons for no significant deals were registered in second quarter are well-known classic reasons for this period: the fragile macroeconomic environment, Romania seen as a market with a high risk level, few active buyers, difficulties in obtaining bank financing, significant price gaps between sellers expectations and buyers offers, few investment products with institutional quality, quite important un-occupancy rates and short lease terms, etc. ", has declared for MEDIAFAX Marius Grigorică, senior business analyst - investment department DTZ Echinox.
Moreover, in the case of the real estate assets sold by the banks, the selling process is burdened also by the low level of flexibility of the institutions.
However while landlords have hardly managed to gather EUR 100 million through selling real estate projects, the total transactions value registered in Central and Eastern Europe in the first five months of this year reached EUR 3.7 billion, 30% more than the one registered in in the first six months of 2012, according to CBRE.
Russia has attracted EUR 2.5 million, while Poland registered transactions of approx. EUR 750 million.
For the analysed period, over EUR 100 million transactions were registered in Central and Eastern Europe, confirming the investors request for substantial acquisitions.
The biggest transaction registered in Romania this year was the takeover of the office building The Lakeview in Bucharest by New Europe Property Investments (NEPI) fund from the American company AIG/Lincoln and the businessman Dinu Patriciu. The transaction value was EUR 61.7 million. NEPI was also the protagonist of the biggest transaction in 2012, involving the takeover of the office complex City Business Centre in Timisoara. (source: economica.net)
