The recent transactions closed in the last weeks, with a total value of €400 million, demonstrate that the investment market in Romania remains strong and attractive even in the COVID-19 pandemic period, Romania no longer being just seen as just a fringe market of Central Europe, according to Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

Romanian real estate developer One United Properties has completed a capital increase process worth €25 million by selling part of its One Cotroceni Park urban regeneration project, currently under construction in Bucharest. The amount raised is to be invested in the further development of the project.

Speedwell has designated Bog’Art as the general contractor in charge of Miro, the company’s newest office project located in the Băneasa area of Bucharest. Miro project will offer its tenants 23,000 sqm of Class A office space spread out over 5 levels. The project has been granted the building permit and works have already started.

Deloitte Romania and Reff & Associates, the law firm representing Deloitte Legal global network in Romania, provided assistance to Haier Tech, a Romanian company belonging to the Haier Group, in the project for building in Prahova county the first Haier’s refrigeration factory in the European Union. After assisting Haier Tech in obtaining the financing agreement for state aid in December 2019, Deloitte’s Management Consulting practice is now advising Haier Tech in the implementation of the large investment project that exceeds €53 million, for which the state will provide aid of €25 million.

Resolution Property (based in the UK, a member of the Fosun Group, a major Chinese conglomerate and investment company) and Zeus Capital Management (a leading international real estate investment and asset management firm) have recently acquired Floreasca Park, a ca. 40,000 sqm office campus in the heart of Bucharest. The property was sold to the joint venture by a fund managed by GLL Real Estate Partners GMBH (a member of Macquarie Group).

Fashion House Group has appointed retail veteran Cornelia Nicolae to the position of Retail Operations Director in Bucharest. In the newly created role, Cornelia will be responsible for launching the Group’s new flagship development, its second in Bucharest, while continuing to drive footfall and sales at its established outlet centre in the capital.

Arad-based developer Wallberg has secured a €7.3 million loan from Garanti Bank for the construction of the second tower of the XCity Towers complex, the first residential tower in the city of Timișoara, a project worth €75 million which will total 955 apartments.

The Vox Technology Park office building in Timișoara has obtained the BREEAM In-Use v6 sustainable certification with an Outstanding rating, the highest existent score accorded on a global level, thus being the first project in Romania with this ranking.

AFI Europe, the owner of among others the largest mall in Bucharest, has completed the takeover of the portfolio consisting of four office projects from NEPI Rockcastle, in the most important office transaction in Romanian history. With a value of €307 million, the transaction through which NEPI Rockcastle, advised by Colliers International, sold four office projects to AFI Europe represents a third of the real estate investment market estimated at about €1 billion in 2020. The acquisition places Romania on the map of large strategic investors and has the potential to become a catalyst for significant new transactions in the future, being an important benchmark for local market liquidity and contributing to increasing investor confidence, according to Colliers International specialists.

The office market in Bucharest and in the major regional cities of Romania - Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Iași and Brașov - continues to develop, with local and foreign investors having projects under construction or scheduled for delivery with an area of approximately 500,000 square meters that will be put into use in the next 16 months, according to Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.