Moderator Claudiu Bisnel, Managing Partner at Brisk Group, started the discussion with the Residential panel at CEDER 2024 by mentioning a couple of the challenges posed by the current market environment: “cost pressures, manpower shortages, and inflation impacting the direct buyer.” He then wanted to know what the panelists considered to be the greatest challenges they faced in their activity.
Luciana Giurea, Head of the Residential Division at AFI Europe Romania, mentioned the permitting procedure taking longer than expected as one of the most important challenges her company faced, especially in Bucharest.
Alex Skouras, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Alesonor, mentioned the construction cost as one of the most difficult aspects of their activity. He added: “Finding the correct teams that they would be willing and (…) able to deliver the product that we all promised, as quality developers, to our clients and doing it within the budget”.
On the topic of costs, Cosmin Savu-Cristescu, Managing Director of REDPORT, declared: “I am an absolute maniac about costs. (…) It’s a constant challenge.” When it came to strategies to overcome this challenge, he mentioned analysing all projects very carefully in order to find several ideal solutions for each issue, and added: “There are various methods, from a very clear philosophy in terms of procurement, in establishing direct connection with the suppliers, ordering our party of merchandise in advance, in order to block the price, in order to ensure the delivery period.”
Jan Demeyere, Architect and Co-Founder of Speedwell, also mentioned the way the authorities understand urbanism as an important challenge. He said: “Today, urbanism is purely a mathematical thing. (…) If you look at the mixed projects, I think it was a good thing it was also picked up by the authorities (…) but all over the country, (…) if you do a mixed project on a certain location, you need, let’s say, 30% of non-residential (…). But it doesn’t work like that. (…) You cannot just define a location or an urban regeneration on a small piece of land. You have to look at the big picture.”
