In recent years, the northern areas of Bucharest, such as Baneasa and Pipera, have undergone considerable developments in terms of office space, with developers pumping more money into projects in these areas amid the lack of available space in the centre of the city.
"Between Petricani Street and the Pipera-Tunari Road, around 200,000 square metres of office space are waiting for the necessary authorisation from the city hall. The office space will be delivered sequentially, with the Cubic Centre project becoming the first available on the market," says Alexandra Dimofte, managing partner with Eurisko real estate consultancy, which handled the sale of the Cubic Centre project to Fabian, a British investment fund.
At present, the overall office space available in Bucharest stands at around one million square metres, with the newly developed projects in Pipera adding around 20% to available office space.
"The Cubic Centre project is now in the foundation building stage, with the project due for completion in the spring of 2009," says Dimofte.
The Cubic Centre building, will comprise 12 storeys with a lettable area of around 27,000 square metres, and was acquired in a forward purchase deal valued at 60m euros.
"Fabian plans to seal another similar deal through our company. By the end of the year the value of deals operated by the British investment fund on the domestic market, could reach 180m euros," stated Dimofte.
The Eurisko representative would not specify the names of the individuals behind the company that started the building's development.
The takeover of the Cubic Centre is the largest transaction conducted by Fabian, with the investment fund having also assessed the possible risk of the building not being rented out. Eurisko is exclusively handling the letting of office space.
"We're in talks for half of the lettable area of the building. We hope to rent a quarter by September-October 2007, with a different level of rent than in the central areas of the city, that is 18-19 euros/square metre/ month," specified Dimofte.
"Investors have started to team up in the very early stages of project development. Major funds are being raised, but unfortunately, to their disadvantage, they do not move swiftly enough and lose out to small, active and aggressive investors," says Dimofte.
Last year, Eurisko, ranked second on the domestic real estate market, generated a turnover worth almost 6m euros, whilst employing more than 80 people.
In recent years, the buoyant real estate market has attracted major real estate consultancies, which have opened offices in Bucharest intending to grab significant slices of the market. In 2006, the value of the market for real estate consulting services revolved around 35m euros, with the value expected to surge by around 40% this year taking the overall market to 50m euros.
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