Alan of Aberdeen, as he prefers to be known on the Property Secrets Community Forums, is an investor in Romania, specifically, Property Secrets' first ever deal there, Quadra Place. Recently, he visited Bucharest to tie up his finance, visit the development and get a feel for the city itself.

In the latest of our Community contributed articles, Alan reports on his trip:

The main reason for the trip was to pre qualify for a mortgage with Domenia Credit for my apartment in Quadra Place. Despite trying to avoid the trip the bank said they have to see both of us at least once. I managed to negotiate for only myself to visit rather than the two of us. A further visit would be preferred by the bank, however an alternative of a POA for the mortgage signing was reluctantly accepted.

I am told some banks do allow approval of mortgages remotely but not this one, it might be worth investigating before deciding where to apply for your loan.

I am staff with above average salary with excellent credit rating and consider myself a very solid bet for a mortgage. The bank wanted to see the masters of all documents to verify the files previously scanned and sent. The clerk was very diligent with his data collection and verification asking for 12 months bank statements despite previously only asking for 6 months. In the end all went well (although still waiting for formal acceptance) and the interview lasted maybe 90 minutes.

I say interview but it was basically showing the master documents and validating the copies, so if all is well with your records there should not be any problems.

I had some conflicting information about the requirements for a bank account, expecting one would be set up as part of the mortgage process. This is not the case and I needed to set up an account. Further, after checking back with Property Secrets they advised you need to be in county to do this. So after numerous calls and great help from Tavi Bota (Property Secrets' partner in Romania) and a few others, I went to see Raiffersen Bank (which was nearby).

In the end it was very easy to set up a personnel bank account needing only Passport ID and a few Euros to open the account. However, a further POA was required to allow the mortgage direct debit to be set in the future and to collect the bank card without which you cannot activate the online facility.

Fortunately for me, Tavi was with me and could be verified so all was well. Interestingly, the bank clerk said it was possible to set up the account without being in country, so more conflicting information...

Later in the day there was time to visit the development. Tavi again took care of me and it was indeed rewarding and encouraging hearing his well founded thoughts on the potential of Quadra Place, Bucharest and other parts of Romania. If I had more funds I would be piling in.

The development itself is set close to two Universities in a quite green area of Bucharest, a few kilometres West from the city centre. To the North West there is a lake and looking East the higher apartments in Block J give great views across the city, including the Presidential Palace, very special indeed.

Overall the development looks great and has lots of companies close by, and more to follow. As some may know already the rental demand is beating forecasts, so hopefully it will do well.

Logistics also came together without too much pain, I flew KLM Aberdeen Amsterdam Bucharest all up about £310.00. Flights times were also okay, I set off Thursday 16:00 and returned Saturday 06:00, and since Bucharest is 2 hours ahead there was not too much time to explore any of the local night time distractions, which was probably a good thing...

You may be surprised but the hotel rates are pretty high, typically 130 to 180 Euros per night for 4 star, and even more surprising - no rooms were available! Tavi had made a few suggestions including this website

www.bookarest.com

How about that for a name?

So that's where I got my very nice central 1-bed serviced apartment for 90 Euros per night and the service was great, including airport collection. Not the same as a hotel but not a bad option and slightly less expensive.

As others have posted previously Bucharest is absolutely buzzing, it really feels like a place where people are going places, unlike the traffic which is mostly, well, erm, not going places...

I remember Neil Lewis' comment some time back about the young aspiring middle classes and how they don't know what they need yet. It is only when it becomes available that they find they need it. I am not sure how many Romanians needed a mobile phone a few years ago, but boy, everyone needs one now. And it will be the same when those nice apartments start appearing and the realisation that one could be theirs.

Anyway hope some of you find this useful, good luck and thanks to all who made my trip interesting, painless and hopefully worthwhile.