The sale of The Office Cluj Napoca by Ovidiu Sandor and NEPI Rockastle to the Dedeman group is the biggest transaction involving an office project ever conducted outside Bucharest and represents a new benchmark as regards the price and liquidity of prime real estate assets in secondary cities.
Real estate consultancy company JLL was the exclusive representative for Mulberry Development in the sale of The Office, which is also the biggest transaction concluded this year in Romania.
"We are happy to have been involved in a new benchmark transaction for the local real estate market. The completion of the sale of The Office in Cluj Napoca marks a new round of records on the real estate investment market outside Bucharest and the Romanian market overall. It is a major landmark for the local property investment market: the biggest transaction of a real estate asset in a secondary city signed in the past 10 years and the first of this size where both sides are prestigious Romanian entrepreneurs," said Andrei Văcaru, Head of Capital Markets JLL România.
The Office is the biggest office project in Cluj-Napoca, with a total area of 61,000 square meters, 100% leased, and certified BREEAM Excellent.
"I would like to thank the team at JLL for their involvement, their professionalism and their contribution to the success of this transaction," said Ovidiu Sandor, founder and CEO of Mulberry Development.
With this transaction, Cluj-Napoca regains its position on the real estate investment map in Romania. After two significant but smaller transactions on this market last year, namely the sale of the Maestro office building and the logistics park CTPark, the sale of The Office proves there is liquidity for institutional projects in Cluj.
"The sale of The Office is an important benchmark as regards the price of prime products in secondary cities. The coordination of the sale process has given us the opportunity to demonstrate there was high interest for this project and to identify the groups truly interested in acquiring office buildings in secondary cities," added Andrei Văcaru, Head of Capital Markets JLL România.
For Dedeman group, a relatively new name on the property investment market, this is the second transaction concluded in the past year in Romania and their professionalism and ability to conclude major transactions boosts the market's confidence in Romanian capital.
"The emergence of private Romanian buyers as major players on the institutional real estate transactions market shows promise. Romania would have much to gain if, besides them, we also had local investment funds or local pension funds investing, the way it is in Hungary or the Czech Republic," said Andrei Văcaru.
The number and volume of projects under negotiation set the premises for a better year than 2018, and the volume of transactions could reach approximately EUR1.2 billion, creating a favorable environment for a larger and more diverse group of buyers to look towards Romania.
We estimate an increase in large transactions in Romania this year. JLL's portfolio alone includes two major transactions that are expected to be concluded in the first half of the year.