2020 was a good year for the Romanian transaction market, with a volume that approached the threshold of €1 billion. Most of the transactions concluded were for office buildings, with a volume of €784 million. Although estimates for 2021 are more modest, we can expect the sale of several important assets to go through this year. Property Forum lists the office buildings in Bucharest that could change owners in the next 12 months.
Attractive yields
However, the Romanian market still has a lot to offer. Players are keeping an eye on valuable assets and new transactions could be completed this year. David Hay, who bought the America House office project in Bucharest together with a fund of Morgan Stanley, said last year at SEE Property Forum that he is looking at a new acquisition in the office sector.
For buyers, the office market in Bucharest is more attractive than those in other capitals of the region due to yields. At the end of last year, Bucharest ranked first with a yield of 7.15%, while in Warsaw it was 4.75%, in Prague 3.9%, in Bratislava 5.75%, and in Budapest 5.10%.
“Market liquidity held throughout the period of the pandemic in 2020 and looks likely to stay healthy in 2021, as Romania still has some of the most attractive yields in the region. There has not been a significant yield adjustment for prime assets and it is mostly expected that only non-prime assets will see yield increases. The industrial & logistics sector will be the most sought-after, although a lack of available product will mean that office transaction will likely remain dominant in 2021 too”, Cushman & Wakefiled’s Marketbeat for Romania shows.
Possible transactions
At the end of last year, Skanska announced the sale of the Campus 6.2 and Campus 6.3 buildings for €97 million to Austrian company S Immo, and the next asset up for sale could be the first building of Equilibrium project, estimated at €50 million. The company also plans to build Equilibrium II and also owns a plot of land for new office buildings.
Romanian businessman Ion Rădulea, who developed the Sema Parc project through River Development, has put up for sale The Light office building in 2019, and the company's representatives said that despite the pandemic, discussions for the sale continue. The sale price is €55 million.
Also up for sale since 2019, the Pipera I and Pipera II buildings owned by Immofinanz could be transacted this year. The two buildings are adjacent and together have a leasable area of almost 30,000 sqm. Cumulatively, the two buildings have an estimated value of € 35 million.
Another important transaction could be marked by Belgian company Atenor. The company owns Hermes Business Campus, which has been on sale since 2017. The price at which it could be sold is around €100 million. Dacia One, another project of the developer in Bucharest could be sold for €30 million.
Revetas Capital and Cerberus investment funds put up for sale last year the Landmark building bought in 2018 with the financing of €48 million obtained from PBB Deutsche Pfandbriefbank. The two companies also bought the Radisson Blu hotel in Bucharest in 2017, for the amount of €169.2 million.
Portland Trust could mark its exit from Expo Business Park project, completed in the summer of 2019. Amid the pandemic, sales talks have stalled. The investment in the project amounts to about €80 million.
A real surprise would be the sale of the Globe Trade Center portfolio in Romania, which has properties valued at €200 million. Several market sources contacted by Profit.ro indicated that the developer intends to exit the Romanian market, but GTC has denied following this strategy.
