Today is my birthday. I become 35 and I enter in the second part of the 4th decade of my life. I was thinking to write today about 35 lessons I learned in Romania throughout the 6,5 years I am here, but I decided not to. Instead, let me share with you 7 small news about the Retail Real Estate market that I am sure you will find them interesting… (so today I will be a… “journalist”, like I used to be in Greece for many years) 1. Gucci opens its first store in Romania It is a fact. There is a gentleman who took the franchise of Gucci for Romania and he has rented about 300 sq.m. at Hilton hotel. [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]7 small news about Retail Real Estate market (that you probably didn’t know)
Filed Under: Uncategorized on Aug 03, 2010 @ 7:00 AM
“We don’t negotiate too much with the clients.If you teach them like this, you will spoil them”
Part 5 of the post “Do you like “role games”? Let us play the… residential developer To read part 1, please press here To read part 2, please press here To read part 3, please press here To read part 4, please press here Mr X is a serious successful medium size developer in his country. After having heard so many people talking about Romania, he decided to come over here and invest as well, targeting bigger profits than what he could earn at his place (do you know anyone who would leave his country in order to earn less than back home?). More or less his project reached a budget of 15 million [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]An “almost millionaire” and an upset collaborator…
(part 1) (published on 02.09.2009) Was it because we had one more transaction on Monday (the seventh one this summer)? Or because the client of this transaction was very happy, spreading around very good words about how myself and my team of collaborators organized the deal and protected him? Who knows? Maybe because it was the first day of the month, yesterday… Important was that my mood was excellent and this is why I decided to attend this strange meeting. A… sweet collaborator of mine You know, all these years in Romania, I have created plenty of friendships, while I also enlarged the [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]“I am strong, look at my muscles, I should be paid double than the old man”
part 3 of the post “7 apartments, a villa in Pantelimon and a gypsy… bodybuilder” to read part 1, please press here to read part 2, please press here A villa in Pantelimon for an ugly two rooms apartment in the center I decided to send another colleague of mine, as the first one was informed the next day “not to appear again without 55.000 Euro per apartment”. This second guy was advised to ask for documents and papers, in order to evaluate what was for sale. He managed to find out that the old man had bought one of the apartments and the rest 6 were rented by ICRAL, with the owners owing [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]A loudly… quiet procedure
Part 2 of the post “7 apartments, a villa in Pantelimon and a gypsy… bodybuilder” to read part 1, please press here Identification of procedure… I sat down on my chair. Three of my colleagues joined our meeting in the conference room. We started by identifying the procedure. My first colleague began to explain, after having investigated a bit, with the help of my client’s lawyer: “The apartments belong to ICRAL, a State’s organization responsible for properties being built and given to people with low incomes*. We need to find if any of the owners has bought the apartment, by paying ICRAL. [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]7 apartments, a villa in Pantelimon and a gypsy… bodybuilder
(part 1) “Let us invest in the center of Bucharest” The taxi driver left me exactly at the right place. I stepped down and walked in the building’s garden. Before to enter inside, I raised my head and admired the quality of construction, even if I was looking at the back of the buildings. 5 office buildings, one next to the other, with their facade on one of the most important boulevards of Athens. I walked in and soon the elevator (covered by expensive marble) lifted me at the right floor. I entered in the office where I was expected. Following the advices of my client’s personal assistant, [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]“I count only up to 20”“Then how will you count 280.000 euro?”
Filed Under: Uncategorized on Jun 13, 2010 @ 6:44 AM
(part 3, for part 1 please press here, for part 2 please press here) Beware of the Greeks… Finally she found the solution. She invited a cousin of hers, “who went to the lyceum for 2 years” to come over and help. Thank God, this guy knew how to use a calculator. At 15.20 we had finished counting. And the next issue was how to carry the money until the notary’s office (who was calling every 30 minutes to ask what is going on, with the lady replying – shouting “we count, mister, we count”). The lady proposed to take the bag with the money and bring it there. The same did my client. “No no no… [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]“I count only up to 20”“Then how will you count 280.000 euro?”
Filed Under: Uncategorized on Jun 12, 2010 @ 6:13 AM
Articles published on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 (part 2, for part 1 please press here, to read part 3 please press here) “What is this? A bank note of 5 millions? These are Satan’s things” The Romanian law is clear. A transaction can be legally concluded only if you pay using the local currency and this is RON. It was just few weeks after the National Bank had cut 4 numbers from the currency and “10.000 lei” became “1 RON”. So, having agreed on the price of 280.000 euro, we should pay the people using RON. And as 1 EURO was about 3,5 RON at that time, you can guess that the whole amount [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]
Few days ago, on Tuesday, I had presented to you an interview of Mr Gavin Ryan, an expert in Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds. As far as I understood from your feedback, this subject was really interesting for you, as the official information about this segment is really limited. This is why I decided to address to Mr Ryan again, summing some of your questions and adding some new ones. This domain is really interesting and I think that it worths to know ... 
