Real estate investments made in Romania in the first quarter of 2021 totaled 98 million euros, down 19% from the volume traded in the same period last year, according to the quarterly report of CBRE
Office buildings in Bucharest and industrial spaces in the west of the country generated the largest investment volume.
In total, in the first three months, nine real estate transactions were closed, with an average value of 11 million euros, according to CBRE Research data.
The largest transaction was represented by the acquisition of the Bucharest Financial Plaza office building, sold by the BCR banking institution to the Austrian investment fund Immofinanz for approximately 36 million euros.
"What is interesting to note is the appetite of investors for industrial projects: 38 million euros of the total volume was generated by transactions with industrial spaces, almost equal to the volume generated by office buildings, respectively 40 million euros. This evolution confirms the interest of investors towards industrial projects and the pressure to decrease yields in this segment. Another 20 million euros have been invested in hotels, a segment for which we also notice a high interest in recent months. Furthermore, we expect the acquisition of new office buildings, as well as retail parks, the latter being a very popular product type both in Romania and in other markets in Central and Eastern Europe", said Mihai Pătrulescu, Head of Investment Properties, CBRE Romania.
Regarding the attractiveness of cities and the availability of real estate products for investment, Bucharest continued to be the preferred destination of investors, attracting 57% of the total volume of 98 million euros traded in the first quarter, respectively three of the nine transactions.
Other cities that attracted the attention of investors at the beginning of this year were Timisoara, Arad and Caransebes, especially for industrial projects, with a cumulative value of over 20 million euros.
The most dynamic investors were the companies from Austria and the Czech Republic, which generated approximately 60% of the volume traded in the first three months, thus confirming the sequentiality of the capital flow in Central and Eastern Europe, indicated by CBRE at the beginning of the year. Romanian investors were involved in 4% of the traded volume, respectively in the acquisition of an office building in Brașov.
Real estate investment returns remained stable in all three sectors: 7% for office space, 7.75% for industrial and 7% for retail.
In Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia), the volume of real estate investments reached 1.95 billion euros in the first quarter of 2021, half compared to the same period last year, according to CBRE data. (source: CBRE)