The main reason is that most of them have good situations of land – easy car and public transportation access, visibility, good shape of land (usually rectangular), large capacities for utilities network, etc. considers Attila Peli, Head of Development and Land Department within real estate consultant JLL Romania.

Attila Peli also says that most of these units were built between wars and immediately after, when Bucharest was only what we currently name as central area.

“Those factories were situated then at the city limits, but after the massive “colonization” of Bucharest in the communist period, the town expanded rapidly and “swallowed” those factories. Today, if we look at the Bucharest map, most of them are situated in a kind of internal ring road which surrounds the central area, with them being surrounded by the large residential”, he said.

With the increase of the demand and the prices it became obvious that those properties could not resist anymore with their initial activity, mostly as they have the correct features for real estate developments – office buildings, commercial centre, residential complexes etc. In the last years, the industrial activities were relocated or stopped, and the lands sold towards investors which have developed or intend to develop real estate projects.

On the other hand, Peli considers these properties will not be forever on the market, “ most of them being already bought by developers and investors. Propably in the next five years all these properties will be already sold. The natural questions following is “what’s next?”. For the moment nobody can answer this question, as the real estate developments are closely related to the infrastructure development projects, and these are handled by some caprices out of the private environment. The investors do not have other solution than adapting to the political interests deciding where and what infrastructure project is opportune to be delivered, not taking necessarily into account the market realities.” (source: capital.ro)