The real estate company controlled by Swedish billionaire Ingvar Kamprad, the owner of IKEA, has brought a 33-year old Romanian at the helm of Romanian operations, who is focusing on Timpuri Noi project, but is also mandated to find new acquisition targets. read more...

Real estate investment in Central and Eastern Europe reached EUR5 billion last year, up 90% on 2009, with Romania drawing in 7% of the total, according to property consultants CB Richard Ellis. read more...

Building houses by the National Housing Agency (ANL) will be given priority support this year in those towns where the local public administration is getting involved in the sale of such homes, Minister of Regional Development and Tourism Elena Udrea said in Braila (northeast of the capital) on Monday. read more...

Businessman Dumitru Bucşaru, also known due to his position as funder of Unirea Urziceni football team, asked for insolvency proceedings to be launched in the case of Green City Construct firm he controls, the developer of the biggest house project near Bucharest, where 520 villas have been completed so far. read more...

Businessman George Becali, financer of the Steaua Bucureşti football team, at the end of last year sold an around 20,000 square-metre plot in Pipera (northern Bucharest) to real estate developer Portland Trust, founded by British businessman Robert Neale, one of Bucharest's leading office developers. read more...

The value of domestic shopping centres has plummeted, so that many projects are worth less than debts to banks. read more...

Real estate developers scheduled for delivery in 2011 at least eight retail projects in Romania totaling a surface of over 230,000 square meters, 17% more than the total area of projects completed in 2009, according to property analysts. read more...

Romania issued 3,035 buildings permits for residential projects in November, down 10.4% compared with the previous month, and 12.4% lower on the year, the statistics institute INS said Tuesday. read more...

Prices of old apartments in Romania’s capital city Bucharest dropped by an average 20% year-on-year in the last quarter of 2010, according to a survey of property website MagazinulDeCase.ro. read more...

Austria's Immofinanz investment fund, the most powerful investor on the domestic real estate market after taking over Immoeast fund, in the first half of the financial year (May-October 2010) 22.8m-euro revenues from the renting of 15 real estate properties domestically, down 13% from the same period of last year, though the Austrians hold a portfolio valued at 885m euros in Romania. read more...

Volksbank, the sixth largest bank domestically in terms of assets, is one step away from renting a space of around 7,000 square metres in Nusco Tower office building of Bucharest, close to Aurel Vlaicu underground station, according to ZF information. read more...

The asking prices for new houses and villas in Romania were down by more than 42% compared to 2008, with the greatest declines registered in Bucharest and Constanta county, according to website imobiliare.ro. read more...

More than half the buildings in Bucharest's historic center might collapse in an earthquake more powerful than seven degrees on the Richter scale, said Stefan Dumitrascu, chief architect of the city's 3rd sector, where 90% of the buildings are located. read more...

The First Home scheme might undergo significant changes next year when the guarantee provided by the state could go down and the maximum amount that clients borrow could be raised, banking sources say, which means banks will take some of the risks taken by the state in full so far. read more...