RIGA -- Lehman Brothers' Latvian real estate arm this week stressed its long-term commitment to the country and its belief that recent price falls were resulting in a more "grown up" marketplace.
Lehman has a 60 percent holding in regional real estate developer Capitolia and LB representatives were on hand to give their official backing to Capitolia's plans for a trio of large-scale development projects in an around Riga at a press briefing held on Oct. 23.
The main message they were pitching is that despite drops in real estate prices, their own long-term profitability would not be affected.
Capitolia's Moshe Ritblat said his firm targeted projects "that you cannot find elsewhere in this market."
"We believe the Latvian real estate market is following the western market. Real estate is not a short-term speculation object. The market is eneterng a phase that we feel very comfortable with… It's a market of grown-up buyers looking at location, quality and who the developer is," Ritblat said.
"From what we have seen, prices are not decreasing," Ritblat continued. "Long-term investors are not influenced by some [fluctuation] changes which are happening along the way. Everyone believes the market will come back 's not booming, but more balanced and much more grown-up."
