Investment transactions in Romania’s commercial property market totaled €120 million in Q1 2023, which was almost double compared to the same period of last year. The deal volume was driven by industrial and office projects, according to a Colliers report.
Across the CEE-6 region, Romania had a share of almost 10% of all transactions. Poland remained a leader in the region, with investment volumes accounting for 50% of the overall CEE6 total, followed by the Czech Republic and Hungary, with a 31% share of Q1 2023 volumes.
Investment flows across the CEE were down 57% to almost €1.3 billion, marginally better than European results where the decrease was 62% year-on-year, according to MSCI.
“Interestingly Romania and Bulgaria both had a better start to the year than in 2022 and 2021. A meaningful recovery still rides greatly on an improved inflationary and interest rate environment to close the pricing mismatch. Predicting Romanian market activity for the remainder of the year, given current conditions, is challenging, but if all major deals in the pipeline close, we could even see it reaching last year’s volume,” says Anca Merdescu, Director Investment & Debt Advisory at Colliers.
In Romania, half of the investments in Q1 were recorded in the industrial and logistics market, and another 40% worth of deals was closed in the office segment.
According to Colliers, Bucharest has some of the highest yields in the region for the industrial sector at 7.5%, versus up to 4.75% in Prague, 5.25% in Warsaw or 6% in Budapest.
