CEDER 2025 in review: Shifting Focus and Emerging Opportunities in Romania's Real Estate

Andrei Văcaru, Head of Capital Markets CEE at iO Partners and moderator of the “Market Growth Projections” panel discussion held at CEDER 2025 highlighted the fact that post-pandemic structural shifts have been driving a change in focus, prompting investors and developers to explore new and emerging sectors and sometimes broaden their horizons beyond traditional asset classes.

Anca Merdescu, Head of Investments at Square 7, part of M Core, talked about a shift of focus towards the industrial sector. She also believes residential is a sector with “structural significant demand, which is not yet covered by the current supply”. Similarly, Aurelia Luca, Executive Vice President Operations Hungary and Romania at Skanska noted they are “looking in the region to residential for rent and mainly under the PRS umbrella”, planning projects in Poland and the Czech Republic and anticipating the trend will most probably follow to Hungary and Romania, where demand appears strong.

Vlad Dragoescu, Director, CEE Head of Portfolio Management at Revetas Capital expressed their interest in “a lot of segments, from PRS, resi to sell, to assisted living, student housing and so on”, segments which are still not present on the Romanian market.

Miroslav Tavel, Managing Partner at OPC Holding, whose core focus is retail parks, expects segments which haven’t yet come to Romania, “as these self-storage or renting homes” to be represented on the market, “in maybe [the] next five years”.

Silviu Toma, Executive Director, Project and Corporate Structured Finance at Raiffeisen Bank, indicated the bank is “very much focused on retail […] together with logistic and industrial”, while also seeing potential in “specialized real estate projects, like clinics, hospitals, schools, resi for lease, entertainment mixed with residential”, noting that these fields offer “plenty of room to grow”. He added that “the groups of companies, […] big developers, usually they have a core part, but […] they are looking to expand in other secondary fields in real estate to improve the picture of the group and the benefits.”

However, entering these newer areas requires careful consideration. As Vlad Dragoescu pointed out, exploring segments like assisted living or student housing necessitates the “entire infrastructure, you need both the equity and the debt component to be adapted to that specific type of business in order to support the cash flow at least in the initial maturity phasing”. Anca Merdescu added that her company explores new sectors alongside a local partner or developer, deeming it “essential for entering a new asset class”.