BCR Leasing: Market growth to slow down to 15%

The slowdown of market growth comes after a 50% leap last year, to over 4.9 billion euros, as a result of the trend of vehicle and real estate funding. The growth of market leasing this year will not exceed 15%, due to the slowdown in the financing granted to the automotive and real estate sectors, estimates Claudiu Stanescu, general manger of BCR Leasing, one of the top players on this market. In 2007, the market leapt by more than 50% to over 4.9 billion euros. “The second part of the year did not begin well as far as the market is concerned, but people always have some other uses for their money during the summer months. The application of the new pollution tax has changed the focus of clients from leasing products, because they brought used cars from abroad, which we do not finance (…), Stanescu says. On the other hand, the market will also slow down because of the significant slow down of real estate developments and transactions. Stanescu anticipates the market will go up by 10% next year, but says it is hard to make a forecast because of the uncertainty caused by the international financial crisis.