THROUGH THEIR PRICES, Investments funds are powerful competitors to real estate developers

Investment funds helped real estate developers when they bought their apartments in bulk, during the first stages of construction. But, once the projects reach their final stages, the funds come to compete with the developers in terms of pricing, says Nimrod Zvik, Marketing Director at "Be Igloo", the sales organization of Norwegian investment fund "Romania Invest".

The press release sent to our editors contained the following statement: "Be Igloo is selling the apartments that the Norwegian fund has acquired these past few years, with a profit of at most 10% of the acquisition price. Given the fact that we acquired a large number of apartments in the various projects, the fund is currently competing with the developer when it comes to selling apartments".

According to the official of "Be Igloo", the prices asked by the investment fund, which used to be called a "speculator" not too long ago, have come to be lower than those of the developers. Nimrod Zvik added: "We are not siding with the developers; we are siding with the customers. Because we are customers ourselves, we try to make sure, that from our customers" points of view, all their rights are abided. The investment fund doesn"t have any limitations in terms of the price they will sell at. That is why we were better and faster at adapting to the needs of customers in the current economic context. We had young people with above-average salaries buy apartments from us. Banks had denied them a loan because they could not afford the initial downpayment. We have our own lending products that we tailor to the needs of every buyer".

According to "Be Igloo", the crisis and dwindling sales caused some developers to make mistakes and change the initial project design. Nimrod Zvik said: "Unfortunately, individual buyers will find it extremely difficult to take the developers to court and force them to stick to the initial project based on which they had bought their apartment. Fortunately, it is easier for an investment fund that bought half of the residential complex to do such a thing. We"ve encountered such situations, and in most cases, I have insisted that the developer stick to the original plan. In cases where it wasn"t possible, we will take them to court, and our customers will get their homes according to the design that they saw when they signed the contract".

"Romania Invest" bought some 800 apartments in seven residential neighborhoods in Bucharest. In the beginning of August, officials of "Be Igloo" announced they have sold 20 apartments in four months. They are certain that had it not been for the rumors about the "First Home", they would have sold twice as many. Buyer favorites out of the portfolio of "Romania Invest", were "Residenz" Chitila, "Vitan Platinum Towers" and "Armonia".