Alexandros Diamantis, Managing Director of Medcity spoke with Property Forum about the company’s investments in Romania that reached €30 million to date and the new cities that have potential for new healthcare real estate developments.

Healthcare buildings developer MEDCITY has purchased a prime building of over 1,000 sqm in the center of Timișoara from fashion group Folli Follie (FF) Group in a transaction brokered by Colliers. The deal marks the company’s expansion of its portfolio of buildings under The Medical Mall concept. 

CTP has purchased three industrial parks in three Romanian cities from FM Logistic, a French supply chain services company, for an undisclosed sum.  

Office leasing volumes in Timișoara amounted to 51,400 sqm during 2022, which was more than half of the total deals closed in regional cities. Iași and Cluj-Napoca were next with volumes of 26,700 sqm and 15,200 sqm, respectively, while in Brașov office leasing covered 5,900 sqm. 

Asking prices for homes in Romania were up by an average of 1.6% to €1,435 per sqm in February after growing by 0.9% in the previous month, according to property classifieds platform Imobiliare.ro. 

Romanian developer Iulius has signed a partnership with IFC, a World Bank member, in a move designed to create a decarbonation strategy for the whole property portfolio with a target to reach net zero on carbon emissions. 

The modern office stock in regional Romanian cities is set to reach around 1.3 million sqm in the next five years if the planned projects spanning 275,000 sqm will be delivered in this period, according to a report by real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. 

Transactions of new office rental, relocation and pre-rental in Romania’s regional cities reached 70,393 sqm during 2022, which was 22% more than in 2021. Almost 90% of the lease deals were closed in cities that are university centres such as Iași, Cluj-Napoca and Timișoara,  according to a report by Fortim Trusted Advisors.

Property developer Speedwell has secured the building permit for the office component of its mixed-use project Paltim located in Timișoara. 

Demand for logistics and industrial space is close to registering a new record in 2022 as the vacancy rate reached 4.3% at the end of Q3, which is one of the lowest levels in the last decade, according to real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.