Almost EUR 100 million was invested in Romanian real estate during the first quarter of 2012 , according to DTZ Echinoz real estate agency. This was an almost three-fold increase compared to the last quarter of 2011. However, it was a 50 percent decrease on the same period in 2011.

The first three months of the year saw the purchase of City Business Center located in Timisoara, a 43,000 sqm office project acquired by NEPI, the acquisition of the 3-star Duke Hotel in Bucharest, and of Duke Logistics, located in Popesti Leordeni, both taken over by GED. The office sector accounted for 93 percent of the investment volume in the first quarter of 2012, and the hotel and logistics sectors for 7 percent.

DTZ expects real estate investment in Romania throughout 2012 to reach EUR 400– 450 million. However, this is based on the assumption that banks make an effort to recapitalize by bringing non-performing loan assets to the market.

The forecast is an increase of the total transaction volume from 2011, which saw an investment of EUR 348 million. This was a 15 percent increase in investment year-on-year. In 2011, the mixed use sector saw the largest gains in invested funds, with more than half of the total volume, followed by retail, which made up a quarter of the total. Between 2006 and 2010 the retail sector was at the forefront of investment activity.

Country by country, Austria was by 2011's biggest real estate investor, investing some 67 percent of the total funds, followed by the UK (12 percent), Romania (9 percent) and South Africa (3 percent).

Nicola Peyton, nicola@romania-insider.com