CORRESPONDENCE FROM BRUSSELS The president of RABO: "The real estate market exists, but there are no deals"

• The Professional Association of Romanian Building Owners was launched in Brussels

• Lack of funding and trust - the main issues in real estate

The real estate industry exists, there are rentals but no trades are happening, says Liviu Tudor, founder and president of the Professional Association of Romanian Building Owners (RABO), which was launched yesterday in Brussels. He claims that lack of funding and confidence are the main issues that the market is facing, as it has been frozen for two years. The real-estate sector has begun unthawing, according to Liviu Tudor, who estimates that the occupancy rate of buildings will increase, and rents will fall over the next two years, but not by much.

The president of RABO estimates that a similar trend exists on the European real estate markets.

• Romania has 20-30 major building owners

RABO currently has 6 members - "West Gate", "Novo Park", "Europolis", "Monolit", "Iulius Mall" and "Genesis" - which total a portfolio of about 5-10 billion Euros. Our target is to have all the major commercial building owners in Romania join the association. According to Liviu Tudor, they are about 20 to 30 such real estate owners in Romania, and their portfolios which they hold in Romania and in other countries are worth more than 100 billion Euros.

Affiliated with the European Property Federation (EPF), the most representative organization which reunites real estate owners, investors and developers, the goal of the Professional Association is looking to promote an efficient, stable and transparent legislative framework, according to the European standards and norms.

Liviu Tudor said: "Over the past ten years, Romania has benefited from significant investments, which originated mostly from the major multinational companies which were looking for strategic locations to develop their operations in the region. All these investments have stimulated the economy, have increased the employment rate and have generated a significant growth of the commercial real estate sector, which has attracted institutional investors, both domestic and foreign".

In order to promote durable growth of the sector and integration in the European context, RABO has identified the need for a strategic change of the approach to the harmonization of the property market with the EU requirements in terms of legislation, policies, measures and standards used".

RABO considers that the alignment to the European policies in the sector will promote better governance, will contribute to increased transparency and efficiency in the market, accelerating the recovery from the recession.

The EPF represents over 30,000 companies in the sector, with a portfolio worth more than 1,100 billion Euros.

Michael MacBrien, the managing director of the EPF, yesterday said in Brussels, in a meeting with several Romanian journalists, that the EPF will invest in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. The officials of the EPF expressed optimism concerning the evolution of the European real estate market, emphasizing that the return of confidence in the sector was very important for its future.