CBRE Eurisko: Three buyers made up 65 percent of 2008 deals

One deal, in which RREEF Real Estate took over 78 percent of Bucharest office complex Upground, reached EUR 340 million, one of the largest transactions on the local real estate market. The Upground deal alone made up 33 percent of the total deal portfolio.
The CBRE study found 11 major deals on the real estate market in 2008, compared with 41 in 2007. RREEF and another fund, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Immobilienfonds (DEGI), contributed almost half of the EUR 1 billion. DEGI, part of Scottish group Aberdeen Property Investors Group, announced in March it had completed the purchase of Bucharest-based shopping center Iris, in a EUR 140 million deal with Avrig 35. Italian company Immobiliare GrandeDistribuzione (IGD) added EUR 198 million in 2008, following its 14-unit Winmarkt network development outside Bucharest. British investors which signed deals in Romania last year were HSBC European Real Estate Fund, Danube Property Fund II and NBGI SEE Real Estate, CBRE says.
The local office market saw yields increase from 6.25 at the end of 2007 to a maximum of 9 percent at the end of 2008. The overall office market in the EMEA region suffered reduced take-up reflecting weaker economies and growing cost-sensitivity, according to the CBRE report.
For the main Western European markets as a group, demand is running at levels similar to those recorded in 2004-05.
Magda Purice