Divided and undecided.This is how the European real estate market was caracterized in 2006, according to a study made by the international consultancy company PriceWaterhouseCoopers together with Urban Land Institute.

Thus, it is essential for the investors to be very well informed, and the „Emerging Trends in Real Estate Europe” report has come to the aid those investors who were forced to make difficult decisions by bringing them vital elements regardin the current issues in real estate and their impact onto the European market.It was necessary for 250 executives from Europe to cooperate by answering the poll made by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, in order to make previsions about the tendencies of real estate investments per regions, cities and sectors.

The tendency observed was the specialization of investment funds to the niches of this field. Thus, the money is mostly directed to projects such as parking lots, logistics and public infrastructure. As for the regions that the investors mostly preferred in 2006, those were Eastern Europe, Asia (the eastern area) and Latin America. Paris remains on top with a great profitability yield, followed by London, Madrid, dublin, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Moscow, Athens and Berlin. A great surprise was Germany, where foreign investments literally exploded since the end of 2005.

From the same poll it resulted that cities such as Milano, Brussels and Zurich have lost the investors’ attention for the moment, because of the low profitability rate estate investments. The news is the investments are also directed to areas connected to the real estate field, such as infrastructure.

The partnership projects with the local authorities turn the bridges, tunnels, basins or highway check points into major sources of profit, and therefore into major fiels of interest for investors.Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Greece, Sweden or Great Britain have such very attractive projects, adn infrastructure has already benn integrated into real estate.Some voices claim that too much money has been alloted for real estate investments in Europe.This is why the investors are forced to assume greater and greater risks for lessers and lesser profits.

Those investment opportunities that 2 or 3 investors were „fighting” for a few years ago are now assaulted by 30-50 interested companies. The evolution of the real estate field also influences the investments’ financing structure.Great Britain has already promulgated the legislation on REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust), and Germany is soon going to adopt it as well. As for the new, so-called „secondary” markets, to which the investors’ attention is directed in 2007, the PriceWaterhouseCoopers poll pointed countries such as Cyprus, Croatia, Ukraine, the Baltic Countries, Slovenia and Romania.

Generally speaking, in 2006 the fields of interest were „A” class office buildings, manufacturig buildings and warehouse on the outskirts of the great cities. The development of residential buildings has lost ground in the eyes of the investors, who prefer to allot funds for hotels, comercial centers, shopping malls and warehouses.

What is certain is that more and more money is flowing into the European real estate, while more and more reports are trying to temper this enthusiasm. It looks like the businessmen read the repots, gather the necesarry data and „season” them with their own investment wishes and abilities, so that in the end they follow their instinct – after all, it is the same instinct that made them milionaires.

The most important thing is that the name of Romania is heard as well when talking about the investors’ interest in real estate, that they are „sniffing” the area and that, as you know, 2007 has brought us accession to the European Union.