“The ten local and international companies on the market provide mostly corporate services. These companies number about 300 consultants, agents and appraisers who are active on all market segments, from retail and office space to residential and logistics and industrial space,” said Mihnea Serbanescu, general manager of DTZ Echinox, one of the companies in this business.
“As a result of the improvement of the real estate market in the last few years, consultant revenue started to increase, as well, and was up about 10% in 2015. The growth trend continued in the first half of this year so most consultancies expect higher revenue.”
Mihnea Serbanescu, one of the most important real estate brokers in Romania, will be running the local operations of the new company created by the global merger of Cushman Wakefield and DTZ, ZF has found.
The largest real estate consultancies in Romania are either offices opened by international groups or affiliated to them, which benefit from the know-how of the consultants on more mature markets and the corporate accounts signed by the major real estate consultancies worldwide.
The real estate market is getting close to the boom of 2008, industry insiders say, and the office space and logistics segments are the growth drivers. Deals involving more than 46,000 square meters of office space have been closed by five companies since the beginning of the year alone.
The biggest such deal was BCR’s relocation from the Calea Victoriei to The Bridge, a building of real estate developer Forte Partners. Second most important deal was the renewal of a lease by the Telekom group for 13,000 square meters in the City Gate complex in Piata Presei. Software company Mysis pre-rented 8,000 square meters in Orhideea Towers developed by investment fund CA Immo. Retailer Mega Image and Deutsche Bank each rented up to 5,000 square meters in the Plaza Romania mall wing that Anchor Grup converted into office space and in the BOB building of Globalworth.
More than 100,000 square meters have been subject to deals of more than 5,000 square meters each on the logistics space market in Bucharest since the beginning of the year. The most important such deals include the renewal of Carrefour’s contract for 45,000 square meters in P3 Logistic Park and the addition to 30,000 square meters in the same location by the retailer. OTZ Logistics, DSV and Van Moer Logistics rented space in CTPark Bucharest West.
The residential segment might hinder the further development of the real estate sector due to the debt discharge law that allows debtors to turn over their homes to banks. The more important thing, however, is that unlike 2008, 99% of those buying now are people getting homes for themselves not investors looking to resell.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)