Funds delay real estate investments

Major funds interested to invest in real estate have delayed their decisions to enter the Romanian market due to the scarcity of high quality property available here, a survey by real estate company CB Richard Ellis shows. Heitman, Europolis, ING Real Estate and GE Capital Golub have been watching all market segments in Bucharest in view of future investment acquisitions since last year, following an increase in the supply, along with an improvement in the country risk and the upward trend of the economy. The supply is still not rich, though. The first major transaction – the acquisition by Austrian investment company CA Immo of the Opera Center office building, which hosts ING, PricewaterhouseCoopers and GlaxoSmithKline, has been closed as late as this year. “With only few true Class A properties existing on the market, most of the activity has been with Class B offices or in the residential field and, in such cases, very much covenant driven,” the CB Richard Ellis survey shows. ZF