Any investor who makes a stopover will weight twice a purchase after Covid-19

Mihaela Dumitrescu Posted on July 30, 2020• 5 min read

Travel restrictions and the difficulty of viewing real estate as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic will pose additional challenges to buyers of buildings, who have already shown some reluctance to visit regional cities. German pension funds, for example, are looking for well-rented projects with personality.

Now, however, the fact that we have experienced new phenomena, such as the legal restriction of the mobility of people and the movement - of both goods and people - has become cumbersome, will make the above context even more difficult.

We believe that the profile of the investor who will acquire income-generating assets - shopping malls, office buildings, mixed complexes, etc. - in other cities than the Capital will be that of a investor who wants to secure a passive income, possibly even an existing investor in the market, either an investor from the East - for example Russia, China, Turkey, Arab countries, or investor financial institution that can buy very large projects (over 100,000 sqm built). It is a period in which companies, tenants of real estate projects, analyze and try to adapt to new realities, so that as future directions take shape, investors will have more visibility and will be able to make decisions more easily.

In the real estate sector, the industrial segment will be less affected, while the offices will bring multiple changes of functionality and I hope that, however, the long-term winners will be the tenants.

American companies are more determined and seem to have a plan of action, ready to implement, and are already working on space changes to reduce workplace density and protect employees (new partitions, corridors, etc.) but most of the tenants expects decisions and directions from global HR departments, which see trends in many parts of the world and will aggregate information as such.