Alex Skouras, Founding Member & Managing Partner at Alesonor: “I was not expecting that sustainability would be so high ranked in the questionnaires that we have served to more than 10,000 families; […]
We are developers since 2003, and we are well familiar to the market evolution. Compared to 2014/2015 when we started developing and promoting the first green homes in Romania, now there are more and more people interested in ambitious, innovative projects, and the demand on the green houses segment is growing.”
One of the recurring topics of CEDER 2023, across all panels, was sustainability, with many speakers reporting that they noticed an increased awareness amongst clients when it comes to green standards and environmental innovations.
During the Residential Panel, Alex Skouras spoke about the difference between the market’s understanding and interest for these topics in the past and in the present: “[When we developed] Amber Gardens […] almost 10 years ago, […] we were having heat recovery units and heat pumps and bio-climatic design principles […]. The market was not appreciating, [it] was not ready at that moment to understand and absorb everything. […] Today they are coming, and they are asking [about these things].”
Viorel Mohorea, Condominium Sales Manager at SVN Romania, thinks this increased awareness is also a result of the past energy crisis, which forced people to consider solutions to protect themselves against future disruptions. He also mentioned that he had seen a great number of clients selling older apartments to buy new ones: “We call them upgraders. I still think that we are in, let’s say, a healthy market. And of course, healthy markets […] are thinking about the future.”
On this topic, Dan Fleșariu, CEO of Wiren, explained that, in his opinion, “for the existing homeowners, the main element that makes them tick is financial; […] they want to save money on the utility invoice, […] and want to hedge themselves against insane spikes in the energy prices like we had last year.” Mentioning that it was easier for owners of individual houses to choose renewable energy sources like rooftop solar panels, he also presented a solution for “greenifying” apartment buildings by using “technologies like solar façades, where you can have an architecturally very well-looking façade, but which also produces electricity.” He added: “It’s the first time in history that renewables pay for themselves. The renewables don’t need any kind of state aid anymore.”
