The State Patrimony and Protocol Administration (RA-APPS) has failed and is currently trying for the third time to sell the portfolio real-estate properties. So far, the Administration had only managed to sell one apartment of the 30 assets offered in the first ten days of July. The Government has legally given RA-APPS the go-ahead to begin direct negotiations.
Direct negotiations will indeed be initiated, even though real-estate consultants have repeatedly warned against selling the RA-APPS’ assets under current market conditions, arguing that it is not a viable solution, and that creating a real-estate fund listed on the stock-market for managing the assets, or handing these services over to private companies are better alternatives to individual sales, ensuring better transparency and a larger profit for the state.
After the sale attempts of the last year and a half, in the first ten days of July RA-APPS has decided to call for another bid (the third one) for more than 23 apartments, villas, stores, and terrains. The Administration reduced the price by 20% this time and has launched a separate bid for five other apartments in Bucharest for a price lowered by 10%. According to the data provided by Mediafax, of all these assets, the Administration has only managed to sell one four-bedroom apartment with a surface of 131 square metres, for the price of EUR 544,360.
PM Victor Ponta stated yesterday that the reason for RA-APPS’ failed bids is the fact that the assessments were made according to the market level of a few years ago, and now the market has reached a normal level. “If I’m not mistaken, the assessments carried out at the time of the real-estate boom were unrealistic; so, in accordance with the law, we should follow that decrease, possibly 10%, but the latest data… The idea is that RA-APPS should no longer act as real-estate agent. Considering the current market prices, not the 2008 ones, we should be able to sell most of the assets,” Ponta said.
Asked by journalists how he accounts for the repeated failure RA-APPS’ bids, once more, Ponta invoked the fact that the assessments had been made according to the market level of a few years ago, but now the real-estate market has reached a level of normality.
In relation to another question of the journalists, inquiring whether this means that the price of the assets is too high, Ponta urged members of the press not to ask him questions on topics he is not “100 per cent” familiar with, and ensured them he would ask RA-APPS, and the government’s Secretary General, in charge of the Administration to provide all the necessary information.
