Head of Sonae Sierra: I haven't seen a similar crisis in real estate in 35 years

German-born Ingo Nissen, 54, who runs Romanian operations of real estate developer Sonae Sierra, says the current real estate crisis is the most serious one he has witnessed over the course of a 35-year career, most of which he spent on the German market. "We've experienced an oil crisis in the mid '80s, which was rather painful, but it only lasted for a year or so. The crisis we are going through now, however, has had the biggest impact on the real estate market," says the Sonae Sierra representative. The Portuguese company owns the River Plaza shopping centre in Ramnicu Valcea, bought for 42 million euros in 2007, and has been trying for over a year to secure bank funding to develop three shopping centres in Bucharest, Craiova and Ploiesti. "Up until recently, banks were only sitting with us for a coffee. Now they have started to also talk, but I cannot say I see too much of an improvement in terms of appetite to grant real estate financing," Nissen added. Sonae Sierra is one of the biggest shopping centre owners, with more than 50 projects in countries such as Portugal, Spain, Germany, Italy and Romania.