Romania: Leasing market reaches EUR 1.6 bln

16:00 - 03 November 2005 - The leasing market reached a value of EUR 1.6 bln in the first nine months of the year, representing 90 percent of the value registered in 2004, according to an estimate of the Romanian Leasing Companies Association (ASLR), "ACT Media News Agency" informs.

The contracts concluded in the first nine months of the year reached a value of EUR 860 M, the ASLR press release states. The ASLR member companies have reached 84 percent of the total value of leasing contracts concluded in 2004. ASLR has 49 members and holds over 54 percent of the Romanian leasing market.

In the period of January to September, goods worth EUR 706.5 M have been financed, and out of these automobiles held a share of 90.5 per cent. Equipment represented 6.2 per cent of the total portfolio while the real estate sector was financed only in a proportion of 0.47 per cent. However, this year real estate registered a growth of 80 percent as compared with 2004. Vehicles registered a decrease of 2 percent as compared with last year but the deficit was “compensated by the positive weight of financing industrial equipment, where a growth from 4 to 6 percent was registered in sales,” the press release reads.

Contracts with foreign suppliers represented 60 percent of the total value of goods financed through leasing in the first three quarters of the year. In regard to the maturity, the vast majority of clients, approximately 85 percent, prefer contracts with a medium term maturity of 3-5 years, as compared to a maturity of 1-2 years. The cross-border operations have a share of 1.5 percent in the total of operations conducted by ASLR members, keeping within the range of 2 percent which has been common so far. Operational leasing is constantly losing ground to financial leasing, losing in the past period 4 percent from the 7 percent registered at the end of 2004.

The value of the goods financed through leasing held a share of 63 percent of the contracts, while the public sector and the NGO held 26 percent and individuals 11 percent. Porsche Leasing Romania is the leader within the ASLR, having a market share of 22.2 percent. BCR Leasing follows up by 20.1 percent, Afin leasing by 10.4 percent and RCI Leasing Romania by 9.5 percent.

Source: "ACT Media News Agency"

What Happened To The "Giant Sucking Sound" Of Outsourcing (Romania)

The conventional wisdom is that outsourcing has been very bad for the U.S. Information Technology workforce.

After all, now that a company can transfer the work of a $50/hour U.S. programmer to an equally skilled programmer in India or Romania and pay only $5/hour for the same job, what are U.S. workers to do? Ross Perot once famously described the result of job loss as the "Giant Sucking Sound"…from the movement of the jobs overseas. Virtually every newsgroup, blog and magazine editorial quotes anecdotal evidence of someone who has lost a job in the recent down turn as validation of this theory. Almost all make dire predictions of the end of U.S. I.T. dominance .Read more »

Foreign ownership of Land in Romania

Law no. 54/1998, regarding the juridical circulation of land, explicitly provides that “the foreign citizen shall not be granted the ownership right for land” but such a citizen could establish a company in Romania, in order to buy as much land as he wishes.

In fact, foreigners completed more than 95% of the recent large real estate investments in Romania, declared Ionut Bordei, sales director with Eurisko. Investors from outside the country have completed the bulk of commercial property transactions including most of the class A&B offices, residential compounds, shopping- malls, business parks and hypermarkets completed in the last few years.

Israelis, Austrians and Spanish are at the top of the list. The French have invested heavily in retail property - Carrefour and Cora representing the leading French companies. German investors, particularly, Metro Group International and Selgros are equally prominent players in the retail sector.

In the Office sector, Portland Trust, a Dutch company, has built two class A offices in the heart of the city - Opera Centre 1 and Opera Centre 2. Europa House, has built a 13,000 sq. m. Office building, owned by the Israeli company GTC.

The price of land in central Bucharest is up to 1,500m2, dependant upon location, availability of utilities and building height limitations.

Agricultural Land During 1998-2004, the total surface of extravilan agricultural land transacted was of 355,725 hectares. “80% of which was sold to foreign investors”, stated the ARAI presidents. The Italians were the quickest to spot the potential of the Romanian land business, by buying large plots in Banat, Ureche added. The businessmen in the Peninsula have bought land at 200-300 euro per hectare and now they sell it to the Germans for 1,200 euro/hectare.

During 1998-2004, there were requirements for the purchase of 430,000 hectares located in the extravilan and 200,000 purchase contracts were signed, according to the data supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture at the end of last year. The Timis County was on top in terms of land sales with 108,000 ha, which represents 15% of the county’s size. This is followed by the Arad county- 34,000 ha, Constanta - 15,000 ha, and Caras-Severin - 14,000 ha. The highest value of extravilan lad was registered in Prahova, with 80 million lei, followed by Ilfov, with 49 million lei. In the south, in Baragan, land was sold also to the Greeks, Turks and Italians. “The demand is for lands of at least 500 hectares, between 600 and 1.200 de euro/hectare”, Ureche added.

Jurnalul National, April 1st, 2005

Property boom in Romania

Romanian land prices have risen by as much as 700 per cent in the last year and the country is set to become one of the biggest new boom areas for major overseas property and land investment, according to a property investment company.

Romanian-based Chindia Estates says the investment hot-spots are Bucharest, Constanta, Brasov, Cluj, Timisoara, Oradea, Ploiesti and Targoviste. Property prices in these areas increased by 40 per cent between 2003 and 2004.

Tourist popularity in Romania is also enjoying a very healthy increase, with major hotel chains expanding their portfolio. The choice of holidays ranges from the unspoilt beaches of the Black Sea to ski-ing resorts.

Chindia Estates offers a package to potential investors that includes introductions to the best real estate lawyers, accountants, off-plan developers, agencies and title guarantee companies. It also markets properties to smaller investors.