{"id":3540,"date":"2010-03-23T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T22:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/en\/?p=3540"},"modified":"2015-01-26T20:04:57","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T18:04:57","slug":"mipim-2010-lesson-no3the-european-map-of-real-estate-investmentswhere-is-romania-located-nowadays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/2010\/03\/23\/mipim-2010-lesson-no3the-european-map-of-real-estate-investmentswhere-is-romania-located-nowadays\/","title":{"rendered":"MIPIM 2010. Lesson no.3: The European map of Real Estate investments – Where is Romania located nowadays?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOn Thursday morning I did not follow my brother to the exhibition. I finished my breakfast and I went up to the 4th<\/sup> floor, to my room, at Splendid hotel. "Ilia, imagine how big the crisis is… a simple man like you managed to find a room there, without paying a very high price for it" my friends Giannis had told me. He was right, but I should also take advantage of this small luck too. I opened the window and filled my lugs breathing fresh air. The sun had started his trip to the sky and the port of Cannes was looking amazing.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWith a wonderful sea as background, hundreds of yachts were tied by the dock. I switched on my camera and tried to zoom in. On the right the old town. On the left the Palais de Festivals. Down by the street, the coffee shops were already full with people. I focused on the yachts, tied by the Palais. So many companies, promotions and parties planned for the following night. Major multinational brands, Europeans, Americans, Russians, Banks and Investors… everyone was there.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tI closed the window and entered back to my room. Everyone was there, but there was noone forRomania. Why?\n<\/p>\n

\n\t19 meetings, 14 very serious ones, 5 investors, 0 new investors for Romania <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tI walked down the Croisette boulevard before entering the Palais. I already knew that MIPIM 2010 was almost half than the one of 2008. But it was not just the figure… I studied the people… most of them were not interested in deals. They proved out to be afraid to return in the "business" quite soon. At Majestic hotel, I turned around. I entered the Palais in 5 minutes and headed down, to my company's stand. Silence. I went to the stands of the multinational brokers who were present too. Their Romanian representatives confirmed: "Good meetings, but very peaceful exhibition overall".\n<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring MIPIM 2008 I had written more than 140 reports. In 2009 the figure stood at about 35. Now we did not reach 20, we stopped at 19. Ofcourse I can not complain, my company achieved its target. Out of 19 meetings, 14 were very serious ones. We had advanced discussions with 5 investors, reaching preliminary agreement with 2 of them. But there was noone new for Romania. Only companies \/ people who already know the country, they are accustomed by the business environment and they know what to expect. But still… 0 new investors for Romania? Why?\n<\/p>\n

\n\t"Country risk"<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tI explained to you on Friday and Saturday that the whole European market looks almost "frozen", without any serious volume of transactions at the first quarter of 2010. Definitely Western Europe is prioritized comparing to Eastern, but still the prices remain low and the interest "not so strong".\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMIPIM 2010, Lesson no. 1: World market: Don't expect much from 2010, better days to come in 2011<\/strong><\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the same time, if there is an Eastern European country gathering the investors' attention nowadays, this is Poland. For various reasons too.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMIPIM 2010, Lesson no. 2: Investor's attention is focused on Poland. Why it looks better than Romania today<\/strong><\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFor most of the other countries, the answer is one: "Yes, it is good, but it is not a priority". For Romania especially, I heard so many times the two words "country risk". "You can not sell to me a property in Romania with the same price like England or France. The prices must be lower, so as the investor to be covered for the country's risk". For many different reasons, Romania is perceived nowadays as the third or fourth priority of major international investors. They can look at the country, only when they find really good opportunities, allowing them to assume the famous "country risk".\n<\/p>\n

\n\t"But why they were all here during 2006 – 2008?"<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tI know that many of you are already upset with this analysis. All the "sweet" lovely people who shout that "the crisis is over" expect the foreign investors to return to Romania this year. "Why were they here in the past? They will return soon again" they claim, mainly trying to convince themselves first.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe big institutional players entered in Romania when their own markets became way too expensive. They had already tried Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary for several years and after several years it was Romania's (and Bulgaria's) turn as well. Some of them earned very good profits, many others did not, or even lost money. But now they find excellent opportunities back home, why should they come back here while nothing has changed comparing to the near past?\n<\/p>\n

\n\t"Who invests in Romania today?"<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe answer is simple: Only the ones who already know the market (and they search for opportunities), or the few newcomers (who search for opportunities too). I didn't not meet anyone who is willing to buy at high prices, "just because the country has great potential". With the banks being blocked or offering expensive investment loans, this situation will not change soon, at least not for the next 6 – 9 months.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tRomania<\/strong>'s great opportunity – Investors' great chance<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMIPIM taught us a clear lesson: Romania must change fast, accelerate its reforms towards a more stabilized system and solve the problems that blocked the country in the past.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the crisis, this is Romania's great opportunity: To reform now that it is least expected and surprise the world in the near future. <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tI strongly believe that Romania will move upwards in the following years. If not 2011, 2012 – 2013 for sure. The country has a great potential and now it is the time to show it.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBut there is also a great chance for serious investors too: As Romania will revive sooner or later, they have the ability to benefit from the situation and acquire some excellent properties today, without "too much competition".<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMIPIM showed Romania's weaknesses. But we can swift them to advantages. Do we want to?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Thursday morning I did not follow my brother to the exhibition. I finished my breakfast and I went up to the 4th floor, to my room, at Splendid hotel. "Ilia, imagine how big the crisis is… a simple man like you managed to find a room there, without paying a very high price for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[216,231,17,204,240,236],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3540"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}