Ioana Roman, Partner Filip & Company: “Tenants are looking for sustainable buildings”

The real estate department of the legal firm Filip & Company has been busy this year, from land acquisitions to leases or investments.

“The first part of this year was animated, despite the ups and downs. We see a lot of movement in the leasing area, where tenants are looking for green, sustainable buildings, are moving from older ones and willing to accept an increase in rent in order to get that quality,” Ioana Roman, Partner Filip & Company said during CEDER.

However, she added that there is a smaller percentage of companies who were struggling during the pandemic and who are actually looking at brown buildings.

Ioana Roman noted that there is an investment focus on Romania, but the investors’ approach has shifted: the most sophisticated ones are not looking only at the financial information, but also at other factors, like the ecosystem and the green projects.

According to her, there is also progress on how Romanian entrepreneurs are looking at ESG: “This is also on their radar. They are changing their business models in order to incorporate the ESG criteria and to become more attractive to investors,” she explained.