3Q Razvan Iorgu general director CBRE Romania

What do you think will be the most attractive real estate sector for investments this year?

Like last year, office and retail will remain the most active sectors. 2013 and 2014 will be the years when several larger office projects are delivered, especially in the Barbu Vacarescu and Orhideea areas. Some of these projects were begun last year, others will start in 2012.

As for retail, last year 200,000 sqm was delivered. In the last quarter of last year alone, several projects including Maritimo in Constanta (50,000 sqm), Galleria Arad (33,000 sqm) and Oradea Shopping (30,000 sqm) were finished, while Baneasa Shopping City was extended. Bearing this in mind, we can say that this segment too is in full development.

Overall, we expect 2012 to be at least as good as 2011. The premises have already been set with several projects having been announced, which makes us optimistic.

Will financing continue to be a problem for the local real estate market in 2012?
Getting financing and its cost continue to be an issue for the real estate sector. The lack of financial resources is a problem for all Central and Eastern European markets. Right now transactions are rare – financing is the only element missing. Moreover, projects are not feasible at such a high financing cost.

Investors are looking at the local market because prices are low and because the country has a lower indebtedness ratio compared to other regional markets. According to Eurostat, at the end of 2010, Romania had a debt-to-GDP ratio of 31 percent, while in Poland it was 55.

Do you intend to launch new services this year?
Some of the most significant changes we are undergoing right now are due to the arrival of James Heyworth Dunne, the new head of capital markets at CBRE.
Our medium-term objective is to extend our service portfolio, which means aligning it at global level. The segments that will be developed in the coming period will be project management and property management. The first steps in this direction were already taken with the acquisition of Euro Mall Centre Management by CBRE at a global level.