I just thought that the real estate business in Romania started to slow down, when Deutsche Bank decided to come into business. And not as a common investor, but signing a $340 million forward purchase contract for 3 projects for office and residential buildings being developed in Bucharest.

Deutsche Bank acted through one of its subsidiary, RREEF Alternative Investments (that includes RREEF Real Estate).

"The project is a record for the Romanian real estate market, and it is a very complex one from a juridical point of view, supposing a very accurate coordination of many details and juridical aspects,", declared Francisc Peli, Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen (NNDKP, the law firm that assisted RREEF for this transaction) partner.

The properties will be built in the North of Bucharest, in Pipera area, a total of 410,000 square meters including parking and storage space. Pipera is a district situated in the north of Bucharest, Romania. Until 1995, it was an ordinary village. After that, an "el dorado" of land transactions began. Plots of land that were 1 USD/m² reached in 2005 the amount of 250 USD/m². In this time, more than 1400 houses were built here, transforming Pipera in one of the most expensive residential areas.

The seller is a Greek investor, Ioannis Papalekas, that will keep 22%

"It is a reference transaction for the Romanian market, maybe the most complex real estate transaction in Romania," said Gabriel Biris, partner and the coordinator of the Biris Goran low firm team implied in this transaction for the seller, " beside the real estate it implied M&A, corporate and financial aspects".

Many analysts consider that last months we have the first signs of a slow down in the Romanian real estate market, and some days ago there was a first fail of a foreign real estate investor, that cancelled an already started project of 29 residential buildings in Berceni, near Bucharest.