Properties22

The Organizers of Barcelona Meeting Point and Central Europe Meeting Point have now decided to set up a new Meeting Point: Bucharest Meeting Point, to foster real estate business between foreign developers and investors and the industry leaders in Romania, one of the hottest countries in Europe from a property perspective as it is already attracting many international developers and investors.

Based upon the big achievement of the three editions of CEMP held in Warsaw from 2006 to 2008, “Bucharest Meeting Point” will take place at the JW Marriott Hotel in Bucharest on July 1st – 3rd.

International prominent associations such as the ULI and IPD, among others have confirmed their participation at the Bucharest Meeting Point’s Symposium.

The ULI will present a session on Financing Real Estate Projects in Romania, sponsored by “la Caixa”, to take place on Wednesday, July 2nd at 2 p.m. at the BUMP’s Luncheon. Bill Kistler, the ULI-Europe President, will moderate a panel of industry experts who will examine who is financing property projects in Romania these days and what are their underwriting criteria. The will also look at how the global credit crisis has changed risk premiums and affected real estate lending in this growing market. The speakers will be: Marinel Burduja, First Vice President, Raiffeisen Bank; Mircea Cleciu, Managing Partner, Neocasa; Jorge Dios de Molina, Country Manager, “la Caixa”, and Markus Leininger, Head Corporate Banking Northern and CEE, Eurohypo.

IPD (Investment Property Databank) has assembled a first-class panel of experts who will analyze the “Performance of Property Markets in CEE” and will focus on the characteristics of the CEE market in terms of size, main sector activity, and patterns of investment. This session – to take place on Wednesday, July 2nd at 4:15 p.m – will be moderated by Nassos Manginas, Director, Business Development Europe, IPD, and it will have as speakers Jan Kubicek, Portfolio Manager Central Europe, ING REIM; Ross MacDiarmid, Director, Danube Property Fund; Alberto Mas, President, Capitolian Corporation, and Edgar Rosenmayr, Chief Investment Officer and Member of the Board, Immoeast.

Some other main features of this first edition of BUMP will be the “Star Session” of IESE, to take place on Wednesday, July 2nd at 5:45 p.m. The renowned IESE Professor, José Luis Suárez, will moderate the session “The Experiences of Foreign Real Estate Companies in Romania”, which will analyze the experiences accumulated by some leading foreign developers to assess the pros and cons of investing in Romania.
The speakers will be: Uri Lancry, Director Marketing & Sales of Adama; Alejandro Rodrigo, Administrator of Ibiza House; Fernando Rodríguez Luesma, International Expansion Director of Realia Business, and Pablo Rodríguez-Losada, International Managing Director of Martinsa Fadesa.

As well as the opinion of the leading Spanish developers at the session of IESE, it is worthy to highlight the Opinions of the Top Romanian Real Estate Leaders which have experienced themselves the whole story of the real estate development in Romania during the last 17 years, to take place on Thursday, July 3rd at 1 p.m. This session will be moderated by Ruxandra Cleciu, President of ARAI; and the speakers will be Dan Ioan Popp, President of Impact SA, and Florentin Tuca, President of TUCA, Zbarcea si Asociatii.

As much important as these world-class presentations at the BUMP Symposium, the Romanian Property Markets will be a key issue to be analyzed in two sessions on Thursday, July 3rd. In the first one, the commercial and industrial markets will be analyzed by Charles Krick, Head of the Bucharest Office, Jones Lang LaSalle. And on the other hand, the Romanian residential markets, which are around 8%-10% in Romania, will be examined by the following panel of experts: Joanna Iwanoska, Head of CEE Desk, REAS; Dan Astren, CEO, Svenska Investerings, Gruppen; Speranta Munteanu, Director Advisory Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Christopher Schonn, Principal Partner, NAI Property Partner