Raiffeisen Bank Romania is ready to finance real estate projects worth some one billion euro, at a time when the bank’s credit portfolio on this segment reached 400 million euro, Repoter.gr said citing the bank’s vice president Marinel Burduja.

"We invested so far 400 million euros in real estate projects and we are preparing the documentation for investments worth another one billion euro," Burduja said in an interview for NewsIn.

Burduja considers that the business will overcome the stagnation period and starting 2009, foreign developers will be able to invest in "major" projects in Romania, getting cheaper financing from their countries of origin However he believes that particular segments of the real state market, such as the sector of retail projects (commercial centres) or the luxury residences, already reached top potential.

Of the total of Raiffeisen Bank property financing, 80% is intended for Bucharest-based projects while the rest is directed towards out-of-Capital areas.

But Burdea, warns that there is a serious shortcoming about Bucharest, that is the extremely poor and ill-organized infrastructure that compromises the success of the projects.

On the other hand, though Bucharest steals the show, there are other extremely important areas such as Iasi, Cluj, Brasov or Piatra-Neamt, he added.