Real Estate Market Overview 2007

The 2007 edition of the Eurisko's report on the Romanian real estate market provides 240 pages of in-depth analyses, comparative studies, forecasts and other relevant information about the market in Bucharest and 14 important Romanian cities.

Dan Borbely, Partner and Head of the Real Estate practice at Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații makes an overview of the legal developments within the real estate sector in Romania.

Public Property of the State and of Cities
Since part of the real estate projects currently developed in Romania include a component which triggers either the exercise of the public authority or the economic use and exploitation of estates which belong to the State or to the cities, a few explanations may prove to be useful with respect to the legal framework applicable to such categories of lands and/or buildings, to the decision-making mechanism whereby the authorities dispose of or create encumbrances on such estates and to other related issues.

Private Property
The private property represents the most common form of property which can be found in Romania. Basically, any estate may be subject to the private property right, except for those estates which, by their nature, belong to the public property of the State or of the administrative and territorial units, as described above.

Exploitation of Public Property Estates
There is currently a multitude of ongoing large real estate projects (including office, retail and industrial parks) which, as mentioned above, trigger the exploitation of estates relating to the public domain of the State or of cities.

Claims on Properties Confiscated by the Former Communist Regime
Another critical issue which must be considered by the investors in the real estate field is the claims filed by former owners with respect to real estates abusively expropriated during the communist regime.

Real Estate Publicity
Another critical issue regarding real estate investments is the manner in which the rights related to real estates (the ownership right, the right of use, the mortgage etc.) become opposable to third parties.

To read the entire article, please download the .pdf attached.