ING: bulk of new development in Romania does not fit the bill

Romania is currently witnessing a high level of property development, but many of these new schemes do not match the needs of an investor like ING with a long-term investment prospective, according to Gijs Klomp of ING Real Estate. Commenting on the official opening of ING RE's office in Bucharest last April, Klomp said the company had been on the ground in Romania identifying opportunities from November 2006.

The first fruits of this work came last week with ING RE's announcement at Expo Real that it had acquired Felicia Shopping Centre in the city of Iasi from Belgian company Felicia Invest for EUR 40 mln. The property is being added to the € 1 bn ING Property Fund Central and Eastern Europe. Klomp said ING RE had been lucky to get such a good property. 'There is a lot of development in Romania but the problem is that a lot of it does not fit our needs. It is a very competitive market on the investment side and developers do not have the incentive to focus on the long-term prospective. Anything will do at this stage.'