Edgar Rosenmayr, an investment officer with Immoeast, the most dynamic player on the domestic real estate market, says the Austrian group is focusing on the Bucharest market, on the office building segment, since the markets outside the capital city do not provide desired yields at present.
"In the case of office buildings, we are particularly focusing on Bucharest, since the Romanian market is atypical and we believe in the other cities an office building cannot generate the yields and revenues we have in mind," stated Rosenmayr.
The Romanian portfolio of the Austrian investment fund now includes 113 properties, with a total area of 3.85 million square metres, of which 44 are retail properties, finalised or under various development stages, with a lettable area of 894,000 square metres.
"We are permanently renewing, strengthening and optimising our portfolio and in case a certain project no longer meets our standards, we usually sell it. The same will probably happen in several years with some projects we own domestically because a building acquired now will not be as interesting in the next 10 years," says Rosenmayr.
According to him, around 20% of Immoeast's 7.5bn-euro investment budget will be channelled toward the Romanian market, with Immoeast's investment officer forecasting the upward trend of the real estate market will continue for at least a decade, with a decline of up to 5% to be registered in the following years.
"In Romania, we have the biggest portfolio in our overall investments and at this moment the Romanian market is also the most attractive for us. We are certainly cautiously optimistic when it comes to how successful our choice of properties is domestically, but we believe Romania will continue to be one of Immoeast's main targets in the following years, as well," stated Rosenmayr.
He estimates the upward trend of the real estate and retail markets will maintain over the next 10 years though returns will no longer be as high as they are now.
The Austrian group has recently increased its share capital by over 2.8bn euros to finance the 6bn-euro investment programme targeting projects in Eastern Europe and particularly in Romania. The fund's capitalisation has thus reached 8.6bn euros. The group has also voiced its intention to invest 300m euros, together with European Future Group, in the following years to build 8-10 logistic parks in Romania. The total lettable area of logistic centres will be around 500,000 square metres. "We've already identified 6 potential locations for these logistic parks and we intend to build centres in line with European standards (...)," specified Rosenmayr.
Immoeast is currently the most dynamic developer on the domestic real estate market, with a recent acquisition being that of Euromall shopping centre of Pitesti in an 87m-euro deal.
Immoeast, present in most deals
The first acquisition this year was that of Victoria Park business park, in a 60m-euro deal
Bought S-Park in a deal worth above 100m euros
The biggest deal sealed this year was the takeover of Pollus Center project of Constanta for 185m euros
Purchased 25% of Adama, a Bucharest real estate development firm, for some 60m euros
Bought the first 2 Euromall shopping centres of Galati and Pitesti, with the overall value of the deals going beyond 150m euros
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