MUNICH, Germany, June 25 /PRNewswire/ --

- Exhibitors From Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe Occupy 40
Percent of the International Area at EXPO REAL 2007

- Expansion of EU Creates Incentives for Investments

- Approx. Seven Billion Euros Invested in Real Estate in Eastern Europe
in 2006

Bulgaria and Romania became members of the European Union (EU) on 1
January 2007, and Brussels is also negotiating with Croatia and Macedonia.
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia are considered as
additional potential candidates. Europe is not only changing politically;
growth in the European Union also has economic consequences, as will be
obvious at EXPO REAL 2007, 10th International Commercial Real Estate Trade
Fair in Munich from 8 to 10 October 2007. Participation from the countries of
Central, Eastern and Southern Europe is larger than ever before. Overall, 15
countries from Eastern and Southern Europe are exhibiting at EXPO REAL 2007
and occupying more than 40 percent of the international area. This
corresponds to an increase in area of more than 15 percent for these
countries compared to the previous event. Latvia (City of Riga) and Macedonia
are participating for the first time. They will present their new projects
and market developments to find international partners and investors.

As a result, EXPO REAL 2007 will reflect the complete range of the
Eastern European real estate market within the growing participation from
other countries. Cities such as Warsaw (Poland), Bucharest (Romania),
Bratislava (Slovakia) and Prague (Czech Republic) will present their recent
urban development and infrastructure projects. In addition, a number of
companies will exhibit, who are active on the respective real estate markets.
The Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA) will be present
from Serbia, the Public Agency for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investments
from Slovenia, the TriGránit Development Corporation from Hungary, Albinvest
from Albania and AG Capital ISCO from Bulgaria.

The assessments of international real estate experts prove that the
Eastern and Southern European real estate markets are moving increasingly
into the focus of investors. Approx. seven billion euros were invested in
real estate in Eastern Europe in 2006, an increase of 21 percent compared to
the previous year. Of this amount, 43 percent was invested in the segment of
office real estate followed by 40 percent in retail store property. Shopping
centers accounted for 75 percent of these retail store properties. The other
investments were in the segments of industry, hotels and property with mixed
use. Approximately 75 of the total volume was invested in capital cities,
mainly in shopping centers. Four and one-half billion euros of these
investments came from Western Europe, and the remaining 2.5 billion euros
from other countries (among others, USA, Canada and Australia). The flow of
capital into Eastern European real estate exceeded all expectations of
experts with that.

Investments in infrastructure projects such as schools, hospital, toll
roads, airports, etc. are becoming increasingly attractive, especially for
investors who put value on long-term, reliable revenues. This is the
conclusion of a survey by the Urban Land Institutes (ULI) conducted in
collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers among more than 390 investors,
project developers, financers and consultants for trends on the real estate
market. There is especially a giant market in the new EU member countries,
because a lot of modernization is needed there. RREEF estimates the potential
of the European infrastructure market to be from four to five billion euros.

You can find more information at www.exporeal.net

About EXPO REAL

EXPO REAL, 10th International Trade Fair for Commercial Real
Estate, will take place on the grounds of the New Munich Trade Fair Centre
from 8 to 10 October 2007. The event is the trade fair for networking for
industry- and country-overlapping real estate projects, investments and
financing. It reflects the complete range of the real estate business and
provides an international networking platform for the important markets from
Europe to Russia, the Middle East and all the way to the USA. The
comprehensive conference program with approximately 400 speakers provides a
solid overview of current trends and innovations in the real estate,
investment and financing markets. EXPO REAL 2006 recorded 1,638 exhibitors
from 40 countries and 21,112 visitors from 65 countries. Statistics for EXPO
REAL are checked by an independent auditor contracted by the Gesellschaft zur
Freiwilligen Kontrolle von Messe- und Ausstellungszahlen (Society for
Voluntary Control of Fair and Exhibition Statistics).

Contact person for the press

    Petra Gagel
    Telephone: +49-89-9-49-20244, 
    Fax: +49-89-9-49-20249 
    E-mail: petra.gagel@messe-muenchen.de



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