Memories from Munich - EXPO REAL | Ilias Papageorgiadis’ blog for Real Estate in Romania (and not only)

Memories from Munich - EXPO REAL

Friday, October 10th, 2008

“Call them, are they still going to make it?”. “Man, are you crazy? It is one of the most important Real Estate exhibitions of the world, in the top 3 of Europe”. “Ask… with this crisis, maybe they will think more wisely and they will cancel it”. Fortunately for me, my friend was wrong in one of his very rare times…

This week, from Sunday until Wednesday, I was in Munich, participating (together with 3 colleagues of mine) with a stand in EXPO REAL exhibition. My company, MORE International Invest, was there for the second time, presenting to international investors our approach to Romanian Real Estate market today. Also, I was in a panel for Romania, which took place the second day, Tuesday.

• The exhibition was the first big one after the summer and it took place exactly while the problems around the world were becoming worse and worse. It is really not easy to discuss about business while the stock markets are falling down like they are on a rollercoaster. You need to be experienced and to know the circles of economy so as not to be panicked by the news you hear every day. Also, many of the players of the past are not present anymore, the crisis eliminated them. Maybe this was why the visitors were significantly down this year than the previous one.

• On the other hand, with 30% less visitors, we had more than double serious investors than 2007. Then it was a trend for all the people to ask something for Romania, as they heard that all the investors were making huge money there. Now, after the stories that were heard and the big problems in the financial market, only the serious ones dared asking or knew what they wanted. Ofcourse there were also people just passing by, but with the most strict count, I counted over 50 serious investors (between 200 meetings), asking for deals over 500.000.000 euro.

• I was very happy to find out that the majority of the visitors in our stand knew the basics about Romania and sometimes much more than this. Also, I noticed that more than half of the Germans or Austrians, with who I talked with, had invested in Transylvania and especially in Cluj. It is normal up to a point, as the western area of Romania could be described as “German influenced”, but it is also really impressive to find out huge investments even in minor cities!

• The panel on Tuesday was really good. Cristi Moga, a very well informed journalist of the leading economic newspaper “Ziarul Financiar”, who also has a strong opinion and arguments for the market, was the moderator of discussion. He mentioned several issues, asked “key” questions and played excellent his role as “Devil’s Advocate”. Dan Grigore by Impact, a company which aims to develop some of the most ambitious projects in South Eastern Europe gave us a thorough look over the market, the official announced figures of residential demand and presented to us his company’s targets and priorities. Anca Parascan, partner lawyer in bvp Grigorescu lawyers was brief, talking only about if there are risks for the ownership title in Romania (trust me, there are not, if you work seriously with good consultants). Last but not least, Georgiana Sandu, the Director of Residential Department by Neocasa, another serious well established agency. Cleciu family (the owners of the company) should be proud of her, as she is someone very intelligent, who knows her business good and she fights for her beliefs, backing them up with strong arguments. Also, she knows how to do good PR, I heard many positive comments about her and all their team in general. I hope that the audience who heard all the five of us understood that Romania still had great potential, but not anymore without strategy and respect to the values of business.

• It was a really big surprise for me to find out that one big businessman from Greece came to Munich and to my stand, just to crosscheck that I was telling him the truth and I really had a stand in EXPO REAL. “Many people say that they go to exhibitions, but they usually don’t find the way… or they come as visitors”. For something completely obvious for me, because I don’t use to say things that I don’t do in reality, he congratulated me and gave me a big contract! Imagine the experiences of this gentleman who is a millionaire after 35 years of hard work and his opinion for Greeks and Romanians…

• I am really curious about something. A short lady enters in the stand. She is dressed very sexy, she has been through many obvious plastic surgeries, she wears very expensive clothes and her man few meters away is dressed in an expensive way too. WHAT IS IN THE MIND OF SUCH PEOPLE AND THEY MAKE A WHOLE STRATEGY IN HOW THEY WILL COME AND STEAL THE TWO PROMOTIONAL PENS THEY SEE I AM USING TO WRITE WITH? I admit that I have also taken promotional gifts from stands, but only when they are disposable as you pass by. I think I have to get even more involved in my favourite hobby, psychology…

• “I like how you talk, I will think seriously about giving you an exclusivity for our new project for offices in Pipera”. “Please, don’t do this to me, there are so many multinational companies which can serve you better”. “How is it possible to say this? You don’t want to lease spaces in the new “diamond” of Romania?”. “I am not intelligent enough and I can not promote something which I consider wrong”. “Too bad, I thought you are a real businessman”. “Too bad, I thought you would realize that I try to protect you”. “Why to protect me? I have two market reports made by major companies, not like yours, which show me that I will be able to easily pre lease EASILY with 14 – 17 euro / sq.m.”. “In Pipera? With contracts and bank guarantees?”. “Yes”. “Good. Then if you succeed in this and you will pre lease with these prices there, I will lose whatever bet you want”. “Why? Is it so difficult?”. “Someone was walking down the street and he finds a jinnee. The jinnee says “I can fulfil one of your wishes”, so he asks jinnee to bring back to life his dead mother. “Sorry, this is impossible; we don’t bring dead people back to life”. “Ok, in this case I have an office project and I wish to pre lease it to major international companies, with strong guarantees, contract for 7 years at least, penalty the whole amount if they want to leave earlier, the tenant to pay the property taxes, a price between 14 – 17 euro / sq.m. plus 2 – 3 euro / sq.m. for utilities…” while the man was talking, the jinnee interrupted him: “I am sorry, what is the name of your mother?”…”. “Young man, why do you tell me this stupid joke?”. “Just so as to show you that what you have described to me is simply impossible”. Should I better lie to him and take the project, making him lose millions in a negative period of time, just so as my company would benefit of some fixed costs? Sorry, I can not do this… (you see… one more reason why people find me cold hearted sometimes…)

• Sunday we started in the best possible way. As all normal people do before 09.00, my colleagues (three ladies) and I bought Haagen Dazs ice creams, in several sizes and tastes. It was excellent to combine the ice cream with the low outside temperature, while we were sitting on the upper level of a sightseeing bus, freezing…

• This kind of days (especially Sundays and national holidays, whenever I am sure that the market is not open), I become really generous with the people around me. This is why when we passed by the famous Maximilian Strasse, I proposed to all the girls that I can buy for them any present they like from Gucci, Armani, Dior, Botega Veneta and the other boutiques. They were closed? Too bad, the intention and the time were only available then…

• Our stand was much better than 2007. Then I admit that I didn’t know anything at all, this is why this year we took care of all details very early (and my colleague in charge did really good work). Clear colours and few messages created something I liked a lot, which raised my mood. (Imagine that in 2007 I made all possible mistakes, searched for any kind of solutions and finally accepted a rather awkward situation).

• I didn’t like Oktoberfest. Too many people, too many drunk people, you must be really prepared to enter in the right mood and enjoy it. On the other hand, I don’t know if it is fashionable or not, but I enjoyed once more the food in the restaurant 181, up in the Olympian Tower of Munich (http://www.181restaurant.com). The restaurant which is moving around, allowing you to see the view of the city from above. (Just don’t ask them difficult questions, like “I would need an invoice in the name of my company”. They prefer to show you how Einstein found out about E=mc2, than to solve this difficult problem. It made four people running around and asking me again and again, non stop for 20 minutes. I chose to lose the money of taxes than to see people suffering so much…)

Memories from Munich - EXPO REAL

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