Como de importante puede ser definir los principios de una empresa? Después de 3 años de duro trabajo de todo el equipo de FDP, hemos definido los nuestros.

Eficiencia, Simplicidad, Transparencia, Confianza, Maximización del beneficio de los clientes y Celebración.

Creemos firmemente que la Celebración debe ser una parte importante de nuestro negocio. 2009 ha sido un año difícil en todo el mundo. El equipo de FDP ha hecho un gran esfuerzo, no solo por sobrevivir, sino por crecer en una situación de Mercado tremendamente hostil. Siempre hemos tenido la convicción que la mejor forma de crecer este negocio es dando pasos pequeños pero firmes.

La Celebración es una forma de decir gracias a todo el equipo.

Las cosas están cambiando en este mundo “loco” pero me arriesgaría a decir que todo será para mejor.

Estoy convencido que FDP continuara su camino en 2010 y esperemos que esta familia seguirá creciendo y que para la próxima cena de Navidad, muchos de nuestros clientes puedan acompañarnos en esta Celebración que consideramos tan importante.

Feliz Año Nuevo!!!

Daniel 

After two years providing property management services in Romania, GRUPO FDP is settled in Bucharest and still growing in this difficult and uncertain moment. Being the first company offering this services in Romania, we had to face an immature market where people were directly categorizing them as estate agencies.

Florenta Barbu, expert on Romanian real estate market, explains that they still have to make buyers/tenants and real estate agencies understand that they are a representation service company and not an intermediary. Daniel Prieto, Managing Partner at GRUPO FDP, gives more information about the company: “Our clients are property owners who cannot take care remotely of their properties, mostly foreigners living abroad but also Romanians who invested in real estate and who have not got time.

GRUPO FDP carries out everything needed to manage the properties and companies of its clients, our first step after agreeing with the client is to get the necessary notarized empowerment to be able to act on their behalf in Romania, we can then act as the property owner. When it comes to representing our clients for renting or selling their properties as a letting agency, we tackle the market without any advertising or logo of our company and we always introduce ourselves as the owners.” explained Daniel Prieto and he adds: “We are very happy to notice that lately, some Romanians are realizing that it might be more interesting to hire our services of a well experienced manager than doing it themselves”.

Although Grupo FDP is not among the main real estate related companies, they have acquired a very good image abroad, in the investors' community who have used their services and recommend them to other clients. What is Grupo FDP's secret? “The most important aspect is that we were born as a service company”, explains Daniel, “Many real estate agencies were forced to provide Property Management in Romania to cover the needs of a segment of their clients but, as intermediate service providers, they are product oriented companies and they do not have an adequate after-sales service for their clients”.

The most important aspect for an estate agency, and what should make it a successful company, is to have quality properties at affordable prices. FDP was created to provide the best service in the market at competitive prices. “GRUPO FDP emerged in the market as a property management company from the very beginning and the most important aspect for us is to provide an excellent service, great profits will come later, on a long term-basis”. “Our most important asset is FIDELITY and we are very proud to say that clients that have used our services, not only are repeating but also recommending us to other clients”. This long term vision is providing GRUPO FDP with modest incomes compare to standard real estate agencies earnings during the last few years in Romania but, little by little, we are creating a big portfolio of faithful clients.

For managing our clients' properties in Bucharest and in the main cities in Romania, Daniel Prieto, an experienced business processes’ engineer consultant, has created and standardised all FDP’s procedures and they are now fine tuning their optimization so that FDP offers the best-in-class service as letting agent in Romania. “We could have used the strategy of charging lower fees and getting a higher profit from third party providers’ commissions. This is a very common use here in Romania, but we prefer to be totally transparent with our clients providing them with the confidence that they deserve” says Florentza Barbu, also Managing Partner at GRUPO FDP.

“We are only paid by owners and we make an strong emphasis on never charging commissions but fees to the amounts that we charge to the owners for a very clearly defined service that we provide to them” says Florentza. Romanian Real estate market is in the throes of death, as in many other countries around the world but this tendency will change when banks will restart giving liquidity to the system. Many companies already closed and small and big players are on the tightrope. How long would real estate related companies be able to survive? “We are very confident of our future and success” says Daniel. “This business requires: transparency, dedication, effort, enthusiasm and a lot of organization. Anyone was doing intermediation when the real estate boomed in Romania but, property management in Romania requires skills that are not that easy to find.” “It can be easy just to put in contact a buyer and a seller but when it comes to managing properties, you have to deal with: administrations, furniture providers, developers, utility providers, lawyers, accountants, notaries and also be very well informed about the market. I remember once, being in Brasov, and explaining to a Romanian landlord about our business, she was replying: huauh, what a great idea you had… it is a very easy work and real estate gives a lot of money!!" “Romanian Real estate market was poisoned and I’m sure that this crisis “will clean it up”. Of course we are suffering more difficult moments and we have to work double to get the same results or even less but, in a long term I’m sure this crisis will be good for Romania. Other thing will be if we were speaking about Spain, Daniel’s country of origin, but this is another matter. Romanian Estate market still needs to be develops and there is a huge market for related companies…”

 I would suggest that the way of facing this crisis on Real Estate goes through 3 steps:

·         The origin

·         Romanian particularities

·         The solution

THE ORIGIN

From the beginning of The Crisis, everyone was speaking about its origin(s): financial crisis, real estate, Bush administration… In my opinion, this crisis has a very simple origin: AVARICE.

Investors are seen as people who are raising the prices and not as people who are financing the development and the growth of countries. There is a difference between a person who had some savings and invested in the real estate sector using a reasonable financing proportion of their savings, and people that were getting financing without any control, only expecting a huge increase of prices. In my opinion, the first group consists of investors who are contributing to the development of a country whereas the second group took too much risks as they wanted to become rich with just a simple speculative transaction.

I believe last group created this Crisis.  This opinion can be transferred to all levels of players. Banks, investment funds, rating agencies, insurances companies, etc. They were not satisfied with what is normally considered healthy levels of profits but they wanted more and more… I think that the economist Gurus knew very well that this crisis would happen but they could not predict that it would come that fast.

ROMANIAN PARTICULARITIES

The Romanian real estate market still needs to be developed with, as an example, very few professionals who offer property management Romania: it is a question of time before the market starts growing again. I personally think that the crisis will have positive effects on Romania on a long-term basis as growth will now be more realistic, controlled and reasonable. Players on the market will have to understand, assume and assimilate this fact to start again a business with healthy fundamentals.To arrive to this point, we need to find where the “Demand and Offer Meeting Point” is.

THE SOLUTION

To find a solution, the first obvious solution is to unblock the credit from banks. The banking system also needs to gain the confidence from buyers again, but to arrive to this point, the State as well as big institutions need to act swiftly. The second issue to tackle is the “lack of information” on the Romanian market and here is where all the small players can really help.This is not just about restoring the buyer’s confidence but also redefining the seller’s expectations…

I think sellers also need to be conscientious that what was happening a few years ago, was clearly a bubble and was not sustained by fundamentals. They will need to accept that this is the past and that it will not happen again. This does not mean that the market will not recover but it needs to be done in a more controlled way.There is a big confusion about the prices of dwellings in Romania. The majority of sellers are not realistic and they think that they will be able to sell at a price that is based on old expectations that are not real any more; unfortunately there are also properties at correct prices and buyers are still “dreaming” that the prices will go even lower. 

Many real estate players were giving false information about both the offer and the demand and this is what we need to change in the short term.To provide with real information to the market is now our responsibility, that will define the “Demand and Offer Meeting Point”…

Daniel Prieto

GRUPO FDP

GRUPO FDP es una empresa rumana con participación española que surge de la necesidad de ofrecer una serie de servicios a los inversores extranjeros para gestionar sus inversiones inmobiliarias en Rumania.

Estamos especializados en la gestión de inversiones en inmuebles en Rumania, en Bucarest, Constanta, Brasov, Sinaia, aunque nos proponemos extendernos por todo el país.

Ofrecemos un servicio único y exclusivo en Rumania, que maximizará tus inversiones evitando que tengas que hacer innumerables viajes a Bucarest.

GRUPO FDP está formado por un equipo de profesionales jóvenes e ilusionados que ofrecen sus servicios de gestión de inversiones en inmuebles en Rumania tanto en rumano y español, como en inglés y francés.

Ofrecemos una flexibilidad de cara al cliente para atender al máximo sus necesidades, así como una estandarización de nuestros procesos para obtener un servicio rápido y de calidad. Grupo FDP, el experto en gestión de inversiones en inmuebles en Rumania!