Riga Has Successfully Participated in One of the Largest Real Estate Exhibitions

On 6 – 8 October Riga participated in the annual real estate exhibition Expo Real 2008 in the German city of Munich, presenting the capital city of Latvia as an attractive destination for investments, illustrating the topical city development projects and projects of its private partners, and providing general information on the city of Riga.

This year more than 1856 participants from 45 countries participated in Expo Real and the exhibition was attended by 24,500 interested parties from 77 countries. In total, the exhibition has attracted 42,000 people.

The Riga stand was attended by over 500 persons a day on average.

“Speaking with the exhibition participants, it can be concluded that almost everyone acknowledges the significance of this exhibition, specially emphasizing its importance in these hard times.  Firstly, Expo Real is the information exchange forum – there are four large conference halls, where conferences take place during the entire period of the exhibition. Secondly, it is an opportunity of presenting cities and private projects. At present, when local financial resources for development of projects are limited, attraction of investors is decisive for many projects,” says Acting Director of the City Development Department Gvido Princis.

Vice-Mayor of Ostrava, Czech Republic, Lukas Zenaty: “It is wonderful that Expo Real is expanding every year, irrespective of the global financial crisis, which influences the real estate sphere.  The factor of mutual communication opportunities during the exhibition is very important for us.”

Director of the Cultural and Historical Heritage Department of the Polish city of Krakow Marta Witkowicz: “This is a serious event, which must be attended. The amount of visitors, which is growing every year, possibilities of participating in interesting meetings and establishing contacts with experts in the real estate sector, undoubtedly, makes Expo Real one of the most prestigious events in the industry.”

At the exhibition, Riga presented the planned large scale development projects – the new administrative centre in Torņakalns and the Riga North Transport Corridor, and issued information on the city economic environment and the city development planned events, with the aim of attracting serious investors of the international level to different Riga development projects.

The city of Riga participated in the exhibition jointly with its private partners from the real estate industry – their projects were presented by such companies as Immostate (the 72, 74 Tērbatas iela investment projects, etc.), Merks (with the Skanste and the Zaķusala development projects), Latmes Building (the Panorama Plaza project), Mežaparks SPV (the Ezerparks project), Vestabalt (with the active recreation, golf and residential settlement project), as well as PBLC.  This year Riga International Airport with its extension project was also the city partner.

The participation model – the city together with its partners – has also proven to be expedient this year.  The information presented by the city has provided framework to the specific projects and the comprehensive idea on Riga to the exhibition visitors. Participation in exhibitions has the long-term significance. Basically, relations between cities, industry experts and investors – businessmen from other countries – are established at such forums. The real estate fairs give a unique opportunity of presenting a city to a very large and competent audience, as well as provide a very significant environment for information exchange.

Local governments of other European cities participated in the exhibition as well: Tallinn, Budapest, Bratislava, Amsterdam, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Goteborg, Hamburg, Krakow, Koblenz, Nierenberg, Moscow, etc.

Expo Real 2008 has taken place for the eleventh time and it is one of the largest and the most significant real estate exhibitions, where cities, investors, industry experts and the real estate market representatives from different countries meet together.

In 2009 Riga plans to participate in the MIPIM 2009 and Expo Real 2009 real estate exhibitions.

Public Relations Division of the Riga City Council City Development Department