European Investment Atlas Q1 2026
Bucharest, July 2026: Romania’s commercial real estate sector accounts for 54% of the loans granted to non-financial companies and recorded a 15% annual increase in financing, while the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio, which stands at 6.2%, remains below the levels reported for certain segments considered more exposed to risk, according to an analysis performed by the Cushman & Wakefield Echinox real estate consultancy company based on data published by the National Bank of Romania (NBR).
The commercial real estate market in Romania therefore continues to strengthen its position within the local economy and to attract an increasingly significant level of bank financing.
NBR data show that, at the end of March 2026, the credit institutions’ exposure to this sector reached RON 116 billion, up by 15% compared with the previous year, an evolution which confirms the financial system’s confidence in commercial real estate assets and in the long-term prospects of the local market.
The banking system’s confidence in the commercial real estate sector is also reflected in a series of sizeable financing and refinancing transactions completed over the past year.
One of the largest transactions on the local real estate market was the €400 million development loan granted to IULIUS and Atterbury Europe for the RIVUS Cluj-Napoca mixed-use project. Among the other notable examples are the €372 million refinancing secured by AFI Europe for its portfolio of commercial assets, the €305.6 million financing granted to IULIUS for the Palas Iasi mixed-use project, and the €190 million sustainability-linked facility obtained by NEPI Rockcastle from a consortium of local banks.
These transactions confirm the willingness of financial institutions to support both the refinancing of high performing assets and the development of major real estate projects, despite an economic environment still marked by uncertainty.
From a credit risk perspective, exposures to the commercial real estate market recorded a non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of 6.2% in March 2026, up by 1.1 percentage points compared with the previous year.
However, this level remains below both the ratio reported for loans granted to companies with state guarantees, where the NPL ratio reached 11.3%, and the ones recorded by micro-enterprises and small enterprises, which posted NPL ratios of 7.2% and 7.1%, respectively.
At the same time, the indicator is above the average NPL ratio of non-financial companies, of 5.6%, and the ones recorded by corporations, of 4.7%. This data confirm that financing granted to the commercial real estate sector remains manageable from a risk perspective, in a context where the market accounts for more than half of the banking system’s corporate loan portfolio.
Vlad Săftoiu, Head of Research, Cushman & Wakefield Echinox: “The financing levels granted to the commercial real estate market confirm this sector’s transformation into a mature component of the Romanian economy. The steady increase of the loans’ stock and the continued interest of banks towards financing real estate projects reflect both the quality of the existing assets and the sustained confidence in the market’s long-term development potential. This is not simply a statistical increase in banking exposure, but evidence of a sector capable of attracting individual financing deals of €200 – 400 million, comparable with those seen in significantly more mature real estate markets.”
