Real Estate

Ranked No 1 in Real Estate by the prestigious independent legal directory The Legal 500 for the last three years, Salans’ Bucharest Real Estate Practice advises on many of the most significant property transactions shaping the country’s commercial landscape.  Our Real Estate Practice Group in Bucharest has a core team of real estate experts that are part of the firm’s Global Real Estate Group of more than 230 attorneys.

Our team provides a full-service real estate practice, with in-depth knowledge of the real estate regulatory framework in Romania and the region.  Our clients include international investment funds and international financial institutions, international and local developers, and foreign and Romanian entrepreneurs.

Bucharest Real Estate Services

Our services include advising on:

• Sophisticated financing;
• Share and asset transactions;
• Development and leasing (hotels, residential and office buildings, land, shopping centres and industrial properties);
• Title investigation;
• Restitution claims;
• Negotiating and preparing documentation for transactions, crisis management, real estate disputes, and litigation; and,
• FIDIC contracts and all other contracts necessary for the development of complex logistics, retail, residential and office projects.

What Others Say

Clients describe us as “a very fine group of lawyers, capable of handling the most complex pieces of work” in The Legal 500.  Chambers and Partners quotes clients who say Bucharest real estate lawyers are “responsive, dedicated to our needs and able to offer practical and commercial solutions” and have “great commercial acumen and polished service, depth of knowledge and attention to detail, and combination of technical skill and attentive service.”

Quotes from Chambers and Partners

“This real estate group has recently been boosted by several new fee earners and is frequently engaged in acquisitions, development agreements, leasing, litigation, joint ventures and financing.  Title investigations and restitution claims also feature in the workload. Clients are pleased with the level of partner attention they receive and describe the group as “responsive, dedicated to our needs and able to offer practical and commercial solutions.”  Sources are also impressed with its mix of international institutional clients and smaller, more entrepreneurial entities.  It receives a steady flow of instructions from long-standing clients such as Anchor Group, Heitman International and GE Real Estate, and also secures new mandates from the likes of Procter & Gamble and Warburg Pincus.  Christopher Berlew wins acclaim for his strength in structuring; “He has great commercial acumen and his service is polished,” clients confirm. Bogdan Papandopol is appreciated for his depth of knowledge and attention to detail, and Laura Tiuca is praised for her combination of technical skill and attentive service.  The latter pair jointly head the practice.”

Quotes from The Legal 500

“Within real estate and construction, Salans is a first tier firm. In 2008, former Prague-based partner Christopher Berlew moved to Salans’ Bucharest office as part of a considerable restructuring of the real estate practice, in the wake of Perry Zizzi’s departure.  The practice is part of Salans’ Global Real Estate Group, of which Christopher Berlew and recently appointed managing counsels Laura Tiurca (Purtan) and Bogdan Papandopol are all leaders.  Additionally, four new fee-earners joined the office.  In 2008, the team acted for Heitman International on its acquisition of the Mercury Logistics Park comprising seven warehouses, and also advised it on a joint venture with Cefin to develop and sell a residential project in Pipera-Baneasa.  The practice provided legal support to the Anchor Group in the restructuring of its property portfolio, which includes the Bucuresti Mall and Romania Plaza; and was mandated by new clients Procter & Gamble Marketing, Warburg Pincus and Compania Hoteliera Intercontinental.  ‘A very fine group of lawyers, capable of handling the most complex pieces of work,’ is how one client described the team.” 

Bucharest Real Estate Clients and Expertise

• Advising major international hotel chains on management and other agreements for new hotels in Romania;
• Advising Black Sea Global Properties Ltd, a subsidiary of Rompetrol Holding SA, in connection with its recommended cash offer of EUR 50.8 million for the real estate investment fund Fabian Romania Ltd;
• Advising Heitman International in connection with EUR 101.5 million acquisition of the City Center Sofia Shopping Mall in Sofia, Bulgaria, from Equest Balkan Properties plc.;
• Advising a Turkish investor in connection with the acquisition of 56,000 sqm of land in northern Bucharest, wishing to develop a mixed use project: office space, residential, retail, and hotel;
• Advising one of the top hotels in Bucharest with an investigation relating to procedural aspects and legalities of a mortgage contract, and a review of the title to the building and land comprising the Inter-Continental Hotel Bucharest;
• Advising Heitman International in connection with the acquisition of seven warehouses (Mercury Logistic Park) under construction on former agricultural land in Bolentin, Romania;
• Advising GE Real Estate in connection with a EUR 175 million project for the acquisition, development, design, construction, letting and operating of seven Class A multi-let warehouses (logistic parks) in six major cities in Romania; and,
• Advising French carmaker Renault in connection with the establishment of a EUR 450 million R&D centre in Romania, a complex transaction involving negotiations with the Government and local authorities.