Copper Beech: We are standing by our 17,000-home plan

Real estate developer Copper Beech, held by a group of British investors, will continue the 2.5 billion-euro investments announced for the Romanian market, which will be directed towards the construction of around 17,000 homes, because “the fundamentals of the residential market are strong, and homes are not a luxury, but a necessity in Romania,” says Diwaker Singh, president and a shareholder of Copper Beech. The company is held by Singh and by another 22 London-based investors and currently owns 600 hectares of land in Bucharest and the towns surrounding it, for which it paid around 55 million euros from its own funds, according to the latest available data. Copper Beech has this year secured one of the largest credits on the Romanian real estate market – 575 million euros from the BCR (Romanian Commercial Bank), and is expected to draw the first instalment by yearend. “We have not yet accessed the first instalment of the BCR credit, but bank representatives have reassured us that there would be no problems accessing the funding,” explains Singh. According to him, on the medium term, banks will become more selective and will only finance developers that have a long-term vision.