Part of the investment funds that made significant acquisitions on the domestic market last year had their properties reassessed, which led, in some cases, to an increase in the market value of their assets by as much as 20% in less than a year.
Out of the properties that were the object of major deals last year, the Millennium Business Center office building, near the Bucharest Stock Exchange, witnessed one of the highest rises in value, being appraised at 50.4 million euros on January 31, 2007.
The building was acquired by the Brits at European Convergence Property Company (ECPC), a fund managed by Charlemagne Capital, in July of last year, in a 42.5 million-euro deal, which included transaction costs.
This almost 20% appreciation is due to the decline of investment yields on the office segment and also to the lack of similar supply on the office market, believes Radu Lucianu, managing partner of the real estate consulting company Eurisko and consultant of the deal. The Brits made two more important acquisitions on the Romanian office market- PGV Tower and Construdava, for 24.5 and 20.1 million euros respectively, yet reassessments did not find any major increases from the original acquisition value.
Therefore, SHM Smith Hodgkinson, which performed the reassessments for all ECPC properties in Romania, set a market value of 25.6 million euros (plus 4%) for the PGV Tower and of 21.5 million euros (plus 7%) for Construdava.
The retail park in Sibiu, European Retail Park, purchased for 82.7 million euros by another British investment fund, North Real Estate Opportunities Fund last November, in turn witnessed a significant rise in value, by more than 15% in approximately three months. Real estate consultancy company Jones Lang LaSalle reappraised the retail park at 95.8 million euros, a value derived inclusively from a slight decline of yields on the market. However, in the event of a new transaction, such reassessments will not matter too much.
"These reassessments are of very little consequence in a transaction. As far as the real estate practice goes, banks take such appraisals into account when they are requested to grant a loan," Lucian explains.
The risk of investments in Romania has gone down and the market has become appealing to a greater number of investors, driving the yields down towards the European average in the process, believes Florin Nine, broker with the investment/land department of Regatta.
As for the small-sized projects acquired in early 2006 , the reassessment of properties may generate a margin of more than 20%, which occurred in the case of another British investment fund, Fabian Romania Property.
The British fund invested in the Banu Antonache office building, bought for 12.04 million euros in January last year, which was reappraised at 14.6 million euros (plus 21%) at the end of 2006.
In addition, the first of Fabian's acquisitions, Cascades Office Building, added to the portfolio for 12.2 million euros at the end of 2005, was assessed at 13.8 million euros (plus 13%) on December 31, 2006.
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