With specially designed areas inside its branches and mobile sales teams, BCR is attempting to gain as big a slice of the burgeoning market of new home transactions as possible.

BCR, the largest bank in the system, has recently launched a new financing concept for real estate, which brings together direct partnerships with real estate developers and tailors offers for final buyers.

The "Real estate centre" concept has been implemented in 22 branches of BCR network, where customers can visit dedicated areas under this brand, to consult with advisers who specialise in real estate investments and financing. Six regional centres will coordinate the 22 sales units (with 10 in Bucharest), where the mobile teams will operate to secure partnerships with real estate developers.

"(...) We have specialised management for each real estate developer," said Dorin Cojocaru, the executive manager of the retail loans Department of BCR.

BCR will negotiate specific financing schemes with developers, while the latter will provide recommendations on the bank's financing options to customers purchasing a house. In addition, the bank personalises the financing option for the final customer, in terms of the customer's contribution and the amount borrowed.

So far, BCR has sealed partnerships with 35 real estate developers in Bucharest exclusively.

Cojocaru explains, however, that around 80% of the demand for real estate loans concerns financing deals for old houses (second market), which is still covered by the bank's traditional branches.

The concept of specialised real estate financing centres is gaining ground on the domestic market. BCR's move follows the same route as Raiffesen Bank, which launched similar branches in 2006. Bancpost has also trained a specialised sales force to sell real estate financing, but has not created any specialised units.

The real estate market's rapid growth has lured several banks, which are taking advantage of a double business opportunity - apart from the project financing, final buyers are also potential customers for mortgage loans.

Bankers have high expectations for real estate lending, and anticipate major developments in the coming years as consumer lending stagnates.

Real estate lending (excluding home equity loans) has witnessed slow growth, and reached only 10.7bn RON (3.2bn euros). However, NBR statistical data does not take into account the fact that a large part of home equity loans are used for financing real estate investments.

A rising focus on real estate loans (both established and hybrid) is also reflected in the promotional offers available.