Real estate investments of around €100 M at the beginning of the year

The real estate investment volume in Romania in the first quarter of 2021 totalled €98 million, 19% less compared with the volume registered in the same period last year, according to the quarterly report of CBRE real estate adviser. Office buildings in Bucharest and industrial spaces in the west of the country yielded the largest investment volume.

Overall, in the first three months of 2021, nine real estate transactions were closed, with an average value of  €11 million, according to CBRE Research data.

The largest transaction was the acquisition of Bucharest Financial Plaza office building, sold by BCR bank to the Austrian real estate investment fund Immofinanz for approximately €36 million.

“It is interesting to note the appetite of investors for industrial projects: €38 million of the total volume was generated by industrial spaces transactions, almost equalling the volume generated by office buildings, respectively €40 million. This evolution validates investors’ interest towards industrial projects and the downward pressure on yields in this segment. An additional €20 million 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 typology both in Romania and on the other markets in Central and Eastern Europe”, stated Mihai Patrulescu, 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 favourite action scene for investors, attracting 57% of the total volume of €98 million traded in the first quarter, respectively three of the nine deals.

Other cities that drew the attention of investors at the beginning of this year were Timisoara, Arad and Caransebes, especially concerning the acquisition of industrial projects, totalling over €20 million.

The most dynamic investors were 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.

Prime yields kept a stable pace in all three real estate sectors: 7% for office spaces, 7.75% for industrial spaces and 7% for retail spaces.

In Central and Eastern Europe (CEE: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia), the volume of real estate investments reached €1.95 billion in the first quarter of 2021, half compared to the same period last year, according to CBRE data.