BR’s REALTY Forum | Andrei Jerca (CBRE): Real estate projects follow the development of infrastructure

Romania is on the path that countries like Poland and Hungary have already taken years ago. We can see that real estate projects are following the development of infrastructure all over Romania and also that competition is increasing even in the industrial area, said Andrei Jerca, Account Director in Industrial Logistics at CBRE, at the 18th edition of Business Review’s REALTY Forum.

“We believe very much in competition, it help us get out of numbness. A healthy market is determined in its entirety, through infrastructure, workforce, not just offices, residential and industrial segments. People are more cautious than they were 10 years ago. The industrial and logistics market is still young, it’s been about 15 years since the first wave of major developers came. And many transactions in the early years were done with existing spaces, not new ones,” said Jerca.

“Now we are in the third industrial cycle, but we are not necessarily close to a peak. If we look at the GDP, we see that both production and import/export are growing, but on different fundamentals than 10 years ago. If we look at Poland, we see that after they developed their motorway network, the production side exploded. And what is happening in Czech Republic, Poland or Hungary is also happening to us, we work with the same customers. The Polish developed their infrastructure, so did the Czechs, and they reached the other category where they hire Romanians in their factories.”

Romania is developing and this can be seen in several areas of the country, but not all. While the west, the center and the area around Bucharest is well developed, the south is lagging behind.

“We see these things happening in Romania. But the southern area is blocked, and it will die at some point if we do not use it. There are resources to be used that are going to find other spaces to develop if we do not take them now. In Timisoara there are Nepalese and Vietnamese people brought to work in warehouses and logistics. Each new highway section has brought development to logistics. A10 will link Turda and Cluj to Sebes and will lead to the development that Cluj needed in the first place,” said Jerca.

As far as the the industrial market is concerned, while 10-15 years ago it was the Cinderella of real-estate, now it is approaching the princess status.