Radulea: Banks are limiting themselves to lending to the state

Romanian banks have turned off the spigot of lending for all large real estate projects, upsetting companies' plans, which are tired of listening to the same rhetoric of banks saying eligible projects are still financeable. "Banks prefer lending to the state and are limiting themselves to this. For real estate, they grant loans only for small projects or to their subsidiaries with real estate activities. The idea that banks are seeking to finance eligible projects is a story we have been hearing for a year and a half since they've been saying 'tomorrow we start lending'. They have probably not found the good projects, yet," says Ion Radulea, owner of Semanatoarea platform and of Sema Parc real estate project. Radulea finalised two office buildings on the banks of Dambovita, across from Regie complex, which he sold to Austria's Europolis for over 100m euros, but he now has a hole five metres deep for the foundation of the second stage of the project for which he is still seeking bank financing.