British real estate investors, striving to get rid of properties

In 2007, London-listed investment funds were, together with Austrian investors, among the most aggressive in terms of acquisitions. A ZF survey conducted three years ago showed a series of funds had reached a Romanian portfolio of almost 1bn euros. Meanwhile, the Romanian market seems to be a lost wager for most of them. The British funds have completely changed their perception, from a market with “potential” to “a difficult one, not set to pick up soon”. Equest Balkan Properties has two Bucharest properties at a loss in the past two months sold to raise cash as most projects in the portfolio have coped with difficulties as regards tenants. Another British investor that chose to sell during this period is Carpathian. “(…) The Romanian market is still fragile, with low liquidity,” this is how Carpathian justified its exit. The only British fund that managed to sell Romanian properties at a profit is European Convergence Property Company (ECPC), managed by Charlemagne Capital. It thus made 20m-euro profit within a year by buying and selling three properties at the right time.