RESIDENTIAL
-The Romanian residential real estate market remains attractive for investments, with yields above other countries in the region. Local and institutional investors buy thousands of apartments with minimum yields of 6.5%-7%, a report by JLL reveals.
-Bucharest-listed One United Properties (BVB: ONE), the leading green investor and developer of residential, mixed-use, and office real estate in Romania, announced that one year after the sales launch for One Lake District, a large-scale sustainable development located right on the shore of Lake Plumbuita, 80% of Phase 1 has been pre-sold. This phase includes over 620 apartments and the corresponding parking spaces. One Lake District Phase 1 has a gross development value of over EUR 138 million, with completion estimated for the second quarter of 2025. Earlier this week, One United Properties’ shareholders approved 70 million euros share capital increase, to finance the company’s next growth phase.
RETAIL
-Romanian construction materials distributor Arabesque ended 2023 with RON2.5B turnover, down 8% on an annual basis. Founded in 1994 in Galati by businessman Cezar Rapotan, Arabesque now has a network of 36 shopping centres and warehouses and has expanded its business in Ukraine, Bulgaria and Moldova. In Romania, it employs 2,900 staff and owns a fleet of 1,000 trucks.
-Brico Dépôt Romania, part of Britain’s international home improvement company Kingfisher, ended the first quarter of 2024 with £63 million sales, up 12.3% on an annual basis and up 14.7% in like-for-like terms, at a steady value of the exchange rate.
COMMERCIAL
Commercial advisory firm Crosspoint Real Estate has appointed Valentin Neagu (pictured) to the position of Managing Director. Neagu, expert in real estate and financing, has a strong background in investment, acquisitions, industrial development and real estate asset management.
He has been part of the Globalworth Romania team for the last 10 years, coordinating the Investment and Capital Markets departments and the Property & Facility Management area. Crosspoint Real Estate is the international associate of Savills in Romania.
ECONOMY
Romania’s annual inflation rate is expected to drop to 4.9% in December 2024, according to the minutes of the monetary policy meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) of May 13, 2024, released on May 23. In March 2024 the annual inflation rate stood at 6.61%. Furthermore, the central bank unanimously decided to keep the monetary policy rate at 7.00%.
