Real estate investment has dried up in Central and Eastern Europe in recent weeks as the region sheds its image as a relatively credit crunch-free zone.
Real estate investment has dried up in Central and Eastern Europe in recent weeks as the region sheds its image as a relatively credit crunch-free zone.
Tomasz Trzoslo, head of investment at Jones Lang LaSalle in Poland, said the global financial turmoil had only a marginal impact on real estate in the CEE region at the beginning of the year. But this is no longer the case.
Speaking to PropertyEU at Barcelona Meeting Point, Trzoslo said: 'In the last couple of weeks the situation has changed dramatically. There are a number of buyers who have stepped out of the market. This is especially true of German open-ended funds. A couple of them are not able to buy now as they have frozen investor redemptions'.
Other potential buyers are taking a wait-and-see attitude,' he said. Some investors have enough funds to carry out acquisitions but the pricing of assets is not competitive due to the lack of competition. 'The number of transactions is close to zero,' Trzoslo said.
He stressed that an important component for recovery would be banks starting to lend again on more competitive terms to give buyers much-needed confidence.
Click on the link below to watch the interview
