Irish Investors Forge Romania Real Estate Links

The Romanian star is rising – and at full throttle if recent travel developments are anything to go by. Thanks to the introduction by Aer Lingus of the first bi-weekly, direct flights between Dublin and Bucharest, up to €3 billion is expected to be plunged into the Romanian property market by eager Irish investors keen to minimize their exposure in a wobbly domestic market and grab a slice of the Eastern European pie before it is all gobbled up.

Links between the two countries have been strengthening of late, with the first Irish-Romanian property development conference scheduled for November in Bucharest, an event sponsored by Bucharest Business Week which hopes to bring together land-owners, developers, construction and real estate companies, banks and major investment funds from both countries.

Romania has seen steady economic and investment progress since EU accession at the start of 2007 and property pundits have kept a close eye on the country and its increasingly solvent middle class, who have created a rising demand for property and higher purchasing power across the board. It is this purchasing power that Irish investors in particular are keen to make the most of, with Irish Mivan Developments’ imminent 70 million Euro Liberty shopping centre project just one of the projects on the horizon. Ranked seventh out of 176 counties for potential growth by the World Travel and Tourism Council, Romania was top investment choice in South-eastern and Central Europe in 2006, and it is this investor confidence, together with its tourism potential, which will lead more than just the Irish to its cities in 2008.