The fourth quarter was one of the best in recent history, with property deals in Romania at €342 million, compared to €40 million in the same period of last year, according to real estate consultancy Colliers. The overall investment transactions volumes edged close to €900 million, which is roughly similar to the result of 2020. 

Real estate consultancy RE/MAX Romania brokered property deals worth more than €300 million in 2021 and almost doubled its commission income to €10.5 million. 

Residential developer Apx Immo has taken over a land plot of 830 sqm in Cotroceni area from ICD Real Estate for €1.3 million. 

The office sector accounted for 66% of total investment volumes recorded in Romania’s commercial real estate sector in the first semester. Deals worth close to €290 were closed in the first half, down 41% year-on-year, according to a report by real estate consultancy Colliers. 

During the pandemic, banks continued to finance ongoing commercial real estate projects but they are more careful with financing new ones, looking for higher corporate credentials and imposing more restrictive conditions to fulfil. Monia Dobrescu, Partner at Romanian law firm Mușat & Asociații talked to Property Forum about the pandemic’s effects on client relationships and provided market insight from the legal advisor’s perspective.

Property developer Atenor says it has concluded the sale of Hermes Business Campus in Bucharest to Adventum Group, an investment manager focused on Central and Eastern Europe. 

Transactions in Romania’s commercial real estate market amounted to €298 million in the first half of the year, down 23% compared to the same period of 2020, according to a report by real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. 

In Romania, the hotel transaction volume reached about €9.5 million in 2020, down 87% from approximately €75 million in 2019, Cushman & Wakefield Echinox data shows.

After a year in which the volume of investments amounted to about €900 million, 2021 will not be as rosy. Colliers consultants foresee a total volume for commercial real estate transactions in excess of €500 million. They also see room for a slight decrease in yields by the end of the year for prime office and prime industrial, if the economy, political and monetary system will be satisfactory.

The pandemic has affected all economic sectors, and the real estate market is no exception. However, Skanska Romania ended the first year of the pandemic with the sale of two buildings in the Campus 6 project in Bucharest for €97 million, one of the largest transactions on the market. Aurelia Luca, EVP Operations Hungary and Romania at Skanska talked to Property Forum about the company's operations in Romania.