March 9 (SeeNews) - Most Romanian real estate companies have a negative outlook regarding overall local market activity in 2023, global consultancy Deloitte said.
Almost two of three Romanian companies, or 63%, expect a decrease, 23% anticipating no change and 14% expect market activity to pick up, Deloitte said in its recently published Real Estate Confidence Survey for Central Europe 2023, sampling real estate developers, investors and advisers from Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania.
Half of Romanian real estate companies expect the investment volume to decrease in their country, 32% expect it to remain the same, while only 18% anticipate an increase. At the group level, 57% of respondents anticipate a decrease in market activity across Central Europe, 28% expect it to remain the same and 15% forecast an increase.
"[...] in the current context, the results of the study indicate a balanced position of the real estate players, characterized by caution and consolidation of market activities in the countries in which they operate," Alexandra Smedoiu, Partner, Deloitte Romania said in a press release on Thursday.
The survey reveals Romanian companies as the most pessimistic in the region in terms of expectations for overall market activity in their country, with only 50% of Polish respondents and 54% of Czech respondents projecting a decrease.
The outlook with regard to average yields is more optimistic, with 45% of Romanian respondents expecting an increase, mirrored by the share of those foreseeing a decline, with only 10% anticipating yields to remain the same.
According to the survey, 54% of Romanian real estate companies expect the availability of investment products to increase, while 27% estimate it would remain the same, and 18% anticipate a decrease.
In terms of their outlook for Romania’s economic climate in 2023, 54% of local respondents said it would deteriorate, while 32% said it would remain the same and only 15% thought it would improve.
Romanian respondents were the most pessimistic about the availability of debt financing for 2023, with 73% expecting a decrease, 23% estimating it to remain the same and only 4% predicting an increase. The tax climate in Romania in 2023 is also seen as deteriorating, with 64% of respondents having negative expectations and 36% not expecting changes.
At the group level, 61% of respondents from all three countries said that the effects of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine would have medium-term effects, compared to 39% in Deloitte’s previous survey conducted in April 2022. Only 7% of respondents said the impact would have short-term effects, while 32% anticipated long-term consequences.
Deloitte’s 2023 survey was conducted in December 2022, with 30% of respondents coming from Poland, 20% from the Czech Republic and 15% from Romania. A 19% share said they operated across the whole Central European market, while the remaining 16% were from other countries in the region or a wider range of locations.