In the first half of 2024 circa 50 hectares of development land were transacted in Romania, the great majority, meaning 81% of the total area being transacted within Bucharest and Ilfov County areas, according to CBRE’s Romania Real Estate Outlook H1 2024.
Earlier in the summer, Colliers predicted that 2024 will be a good year overall for the Romanian land market amid strategic acquisitions in areas where investors are already active. Although the number of newly started transactions is decreasing, quite a lot of the previously initiated deals are closing, including ones involving significant land plots.
In 2023, land market sales in Romania closed the year with a decrease of less than 10% compared to 2022’s EUR450 million level, according to Colliers consultants. About 70% of land plots traded came from Bucharest and its surrounding areas, with half of the deals coming from land sales for residential projects, a quarter from retail and the rest from various types of investors (like offices, medical) or purely speculative buyers.
The most active submarkets for residential were in the larger metropolitan area, outside of Bucharest (Pipera, Balotesti, Corbeanca), mostly due to easier permitting and authorization. In the rest of Romania, residential also accounted for about half of the volumes, with retail representing most of the difference.
The most active buyers were One United (the leading green real estate developer in Bucharest), Speedwell (one of the most dynamic real estate developers in Romania) and German hypermarket chain Kaufland. Another quite active market player was the Romanian state via different entities, which exercised their buying option for certain strategic platforms in some cities (Brasov, Sibiu, Iasi), Colliers said in its report.
Colliers includes in such figures only land purchased for commercial real estate projects (residential, retail, offices etc.), mostly in or around urban areas and not industrial or agricultural land transactions.
