The number of sold income – generating real estate properties in Romania during the first half of 2023 increased by 30% when compared with the same period of last year, but the average price per property decreased from EUR 24 million to EUR 11 million.
Therefore, the transactional volume has seen an y-o-y decline of 43%, to a level of EUR 181 million, according to data from the Cushman & Wakefield Echinox real estate consultancy company.
The office and industrial market segments were the most active from an investment perspective (with 5 buildings sold each during the analyzed period), followed by retail (4 properties) and hotels (3 properties).
In terms of volume, the largest share was held by the industrial & logistics sector (37%), followed by office (32%), retail (21%) and hotels (10%). The largest transaction pertained to FM Logistic’s sale and leaseback of its Romanian portfolio (98,000 sq. m GLA) to CTP for around EUR 60 million.
The Romanian investment market decline is in line with the global and regional trends, considering that the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) market dropped by nearly 60% in H1 2023, reaching a volume of EUR 2.3 billion.
Poland recorded the largest decline in the region (71%, to EUR 802 million), while in Hungary, the market contracted by 64% to EUR 253 million. Romania and Czechia reported the lowest decline rates in terms of investment volumes in the region.