International advisory firm JLL has successfully represented PPF Real Estate in the acquisition of Metropolis Center, an office complex in the city center of Bucharest, from Soravia. This is the first PPF Real Estate acquisition on the Romanian real estate market.
JLL continues to attract new players on the Romanian market after having represented companies such as GLL, Logicor and P3 in acquiring real estate projects in Romania in the previous year.
"Romania is on the radar of other investors aside from the few active ones in recent years. Attracting new names on the Romanian market is one of our main concerns and we are glad that we have so far managed to convince investors such as PPF or Logicor that Romania offers attractive opportunities for investing their money", comment Silviana Badea, National Director, head of Capital Markets Department JLL Romania.
The property investment volume in the first nine months of 2016 is estimated at over €400 million for the whole Romania, and we forecast €600 – 700 million for the entire year.
"Signals from investors are good and we saw that at the Expo Real (one of the largest Real Estate exhibitions in Europe) as well. For Romania it was the most successful exhibition I have attended in recent years in terms of investor's discussions and reactions regarding our country considering compressed yields in the rest of Central and Eastern Europe. The problem that remains is finding properties for these investors", adds Silviana Badea.
Metropolis Center was sold by Austrian firm Soravia and has an area of 19,000 sq m, located close to Calea Dorobanți, on Iancu de Hunedoara Boulevard, in the city center of Bucharest. Among the tenants are EBRD, DLA Piper, Parexel, ING and Reckitt Benckiser. The building was developed on the site of the first printing office in Bucharest – Cartea Romaneasca.
The largest real estate transaction concluded this year in Romania was the acquisition of Sibiu Shopping City by NEPI from ARGO Real Estate, totaling €100 million.