The best lie of 2008: Bucharest’s third airport, located at South

Hello to all my friends and welcome to today’s edition! I am in an excellent mood, as it is the 1st of April, the official celebration of lies! “Why? Do you say so many lies and you have the chance once per year to be proud of this?” some of you may ask me. Nope, definitely not (imagine that when I am advising politicians for their political campaigns, and not only, even then I fight hard to help them NOT to lie…).
I  am happy because today I will not get upset. People can tell me anything they want, the biggest lie of all, whatever they consider good enough as a story, but I will not lose my patience. I will not be angry with them. I will just think that they do it because of the day (and probably they continue during the year because they get stuck on today…)

The best Real Estate rumor – lie of 2008 is the “new airport”!
This year I decided to “celebrate” the day by presenting to you the best lie of 2008, the “new airport, located at South”. Many of you remember the story. It started as a “story” in the last 10 – 15 years, it became a rumor during 2007, then in January 2008 we had the first “official” announcements and the whole area of South exploded! To be honest, I believed it as well, up to a point, even wrote to you about it. I assume my mistake and my responsibility, but at least I am happy because NO ONE from my clients bought something there paying a big price. We had a limited number of transactions, having paid up to 6 – 7 euro / sq.m., for excellent locations, so in worst case scenario my clients can liquidate today without a loss. No purchases with “20 – 30 – 40 – 50  – 100 euro / sq.m.” for a land with todays value 10 euro / sq.m (maximum).
I know a lot who tell me that I lose big opportunities by not investing there and not proposing to my clients to follow, placing their millions. Many people were sure about the airport, the infrastructure works which “will start soon”, the utilities which “are about to come”, the bridge which is (always) “under construction in the following weeks, but you should buy before, because after the prices will reach heaven”. Plenty of investors followed their instinct and invested with these criteria, hoping that they would multiply their money in few months, exactly as it had happened in the past in the Northern part of Ilfov county.
I didn’t follow and also proposed to my clients not to. Not because I predicted it or anything else, but simply because I have learned one thing in Romania: Better for us, the foreigners, to be the stupid ones, who will buy more expensive when something will be 100% concrete, than to invest in the middle of nowhere, “because someone said something”.  I prefer to actually see the constructions, than to speculate on the rumor. Unfortunately I am not very intelligent and I am not able to be sure when someone “official” lies or says the truth. So when I don’t know something, I do my research, even if it needs some time, and in the end I believe just the facts. This costs me endless “opportunities”, but also allows me to have 0 clients complaining today…

Same story with the second ring road and its 9 modifications…
The same story had happened with the second ring road of Bucharest. I hear about it since I arrived in Romania, 2004. Every year “they are ready to start, after they changed the route”. After 8-9 changes it is finally approved… but no one knows when exactly the construction will start. (I have placed several bets with people, betting that it will not be 100% completed until 01.01.2015). And what happens to the thousands of people who bought lands which had “opening to second ring road” before the last modification? They cry, cursing Romania, while some peasants drink champagne with their money and some Real Estate agents were able to buy a new car with the earned commission + bonus by the owner. (yes, most of them are the same ones who complain today that the media create the crisis in the market, they don’t want to face the truth. They still don’t want to realize that the period they could steal someone every day is over…)
Most of the times the owners and the agents don’t really care for the details. Unfortunately, I do. Because these details make the difference. Like an important detail in the words of the ex Minister of transportation, who was talking about the airport with words like: “we will study”, “we don’t reveal the location”, “we can not say when we will start the constructions” etc. He didn’t disclose the exact location, but soon all people believed it would be at Adunati Copaceni. And another important parameter: Two friends of mine, from two different sources, had crosschecked that Romania did not include any “new airport project” in the allocation of projects to be financed by European Union. When I crosschecked this information, I was sure and I simply proceeded in minor safe investments, as I described to you above.

Berceanu: The capital city needs no other airport
The new minister of transportation has clarified the situation regarding the airports:
“Transport minister Radu Berceanu plans to merge Bucharest’s two airports, Henri Coanda and Aurel Vlaicu, into a single entity called Compania de Aeroporturi Bucuresti. Berceanu, who studied at the Aerospace Engineering Faculty and was awarded an honorary title of master of sports in model aviation, says Bucharest needs no other airports beside the existing ones and that these need to be more efficiently managed. Last year, former transport minister Ludovic Orban announced he would start procedures for the construction of an airport in southern Bucharest, most likely in Adunatii Copaceni.
”Unlike other ministers, I have an aviation background and believe Bucharest needs no other airport in any other part. The so-called airport of Adunatii Copaceni does not exist even on paper. The two airports we have now just need to be very well managed,” Berceanu says. Berceanu presented the idea of combining the two airports into a single company during his 2006-2007 tenure as well, using the Paris system as a model. “(…) In Paris there are seven airports and they are all part of a single company, but we have two, each with a different management, competing with each other. This leads to lower prices and taxes, and the state is losing money,” Berceanu says.
He will not close down Baneasa airport, as the former Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu had announced last year, saying the airport should be turned into one for business travel. Should a decision be made regarding the construction of a new airport for low-cost flights, Berceanu proposes the modernisation of the military airport near Urziceni.
(source: www.zf.ro)

What is your opinion? Which was the biggest lie of 2008? Which one do you expect to be the biggest one in 2009? Send me now your feedback to info(at)more-group.eu