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News Foreign ownership of
Land in Romania
Law no. 54/1998, regarding the juridical circulation
of land, explicitly provides that "the foreign citizen shall not be granted the
ownership right for land" but such a citizen could establish a company in Romania,
in order to buy as much land as he wishes.
In fact, foreigners completed
more than 95% of the recent large real estate investments in Romania, declared
Ionut Bordei, sales director with Eurisko. Investors from outside the country
have completed the bulk of commercial property transactions including most of
the class A&B offices, residential compounds, shopping- malls, business parks
and hypermarkets completed in the last few years.
Israelis, Austrians
and Spanish are at the top of the list. The French have invested heavily in retail
property - Carrefour and Cora representing the leading French companies. German
investors, particularly, Metro Group International and Selgros are equally prominent
players in the retail sector.
In the Office sector, Portland Trust,
a Dutch company, has built two class A offices in the heart of the city - Opera
Centre 1 and Opera Centre 2. Europa House, has built a 13,000 sq. m. Office building,
owned by the Israeli company GTC.
The price of land in central Bucharest
is up to 1,500m2, dependant upon location, availability of utilities and building
height limitations.
Agricultural Land During 1998-2004, the total surface
of extravilan agricultural land transacted was of 355,725 hectares. "80% of which
was sold to foreign investors", stated the ARAI presidents. The Italians were
the quickest to spot the potential of the Romanian land business, by buying large
plots in Banat, Ureche added. The businessmen in the Peninsula have bought land
at 200-300 euro per hectare and now they sell it to the Germans for 1,200 euro/hectare.
During 1998-2004, there were requirements for the purchase of 430,000
hectares located in the extravilan and 200,000 purchase contracts were signed,
according to the data supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture at the end of last
year. The Timis County was on top in terms of land sales with 108,000 ha, which
represents 15% of the county's size. This is followed by the Arad county- 34,000
ha, Constanta - 15,000 ha, and Caras-Severin - 14,000 ha. The highest value of
extravilan lad was registered in Prahova, with 80 million lei, followed by Ilfov,
with 49 million lei. In the south, in Baragan, land was sold also to the Greeks,
Turks and Italians. "The demand is for lands of at least 500 hectares, between
600 and 1.200 de euro/hectare", Ureche added.
Jurnalul National,
April 1st, 2005
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