Sheffield Real Estate looks at Eastern Europe

Announcing its plans to foray into key high-return markets of Eastern Europe as a first step in its global expansion strategy, a top official of Sheffield Real Estate said it is now in the process of assessing the potential of various markets including Romania and Bulgaria.

Commenting on its decision to expand presence in new markets, Mr. Abuali Malik Shroff, Managing Director, Sheffield Real Estate, said:

'The expansion into new markets comes in the wake of the growing globalisation of real estate as an asset class to maximise returns as well as at a time of increasing reputation of Dubai, and the Gulf countries in general, as leading players in global realty markets.'

He said Sheffield, which has over a $1bn proposed investments in the pipeline in the freehold real estate sector of Dubai is looking at developing projects worth approximately over $100m in Eastern Europe. Sheffield Real Estate's real estate projects in the freehold real estate segment of Dubai property spans residential projects, hotel apartments, commercial projects and a recently announced foray into the retail sector. Apart from Marina 101, one of the seven projects of Sheffield Real Estate is listed as one of the six high-rise towers on the Dubai skyline.

'Our decision to invest in Eastern Europe is also driven by our desire to offer investment opportunities in markets that offer higher rental returns as well as asset yields. We believe some of the Eastern Europe markets offer significant opportunities for growth. The dynamism of the realty markets, though some of the countries have matured, is reflected in the fact that a major share of the FDI into these countries is ploughed into various categories of property,' he said.

'Over the years, Sheffield Real Estate has carved a reputation for its proven strategy that maximise returns from real estate and we are confident to replicate this success in Eastern Europe and other global markets which we are eyeing to expand into. We are not going into these markets blindly and driven by herd mentality, but after a careful assessment of the investment scenario with long-term focus,' he said.