The plan is to build 10,000 apartments, houses and office space on the plot it bought at the beginning of this year, sources close to the company said.
“We are considering development of a mixed project, mostly residential on the plot in Sector 1. Since we’re about to start working on the urban planning, it is too early to specify a number of details,” said Cornelia Marcu, marketing manager of Vastint Romania. Vastint Romania is part of the Inter Ikea group. Inter Ikea and Ikea are separate groups and Inter Ikea is the one that grants franchises for Ikea furniture stores.
“Vastint’s approach is to develop long-term solutions, and our wish is to create a community in a balanced, durable and comfortable project well integrated into the area.”
The project Ikea is to develop will have a built area of one million square meters. At an average market price of EUR1,000 per square meter, Ikea will build an over EUR1 billion project in Bucharest’s Sector 1.
In comparison, the Greenfield project next to the Baneasa forest (also north of Bucharest) takes up 50 hectares and will accommodate 6,000 apartments in five-story buildings.
Turkish-held Opus Land, which is developing the Cosmopolis complex north of Bucharest’s beltway on a 90-hectare plot, plans to build more than 8,000 homes over ten years. Cosmopolis currently has 2,100 homes completed and the number will increase to 2,600 by yearend. A two-room apartment starts from EUR51,000 excluding VAT in Greenfield and from EUR43,800 excluding VAT in Cosmopolis.
Ikea’s project will be a landmark on the local real estate market and will be the largest residential project in Romania. It will have a built area of more than 1,000,000 square meters and be developed over a longer period of time, up to ten years, the quoted sources say.
Almost 7,700 new homes were delivered in Bucharest and the surrounding county, Ilfov, in January-September 2015 and more than 8,300 in 2014.
The 48-hectare plot of land is located on 194, Gheorghe Ionescu Sisesti, close to the Straulesti terminal, currently under construction, which will have a subway station and park and ride facilities. It is also close to the Baneasa Shopping City. Gheorghe Ionescu Sisesti is an area where other smaller developers have already built apartment buildings and houses.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)