General Director (Iberia Real Estate Development)

“The construction sector is developing dynamically and very fast”

Last year, the construction sector increased 22 percent comparing with 2004. The demand on residential and commercial spaces and the rapidly developing availability of mortgage financing have made the construction sector one of the fastest growing businesses in Georgia.

Iberia Real Estate Company, like other companies, has taken advantage of this construction boom. “The superior quality of house-building with high architectural value of Iberia” makes Iberia different from other companies,” concluded the General Director of Iberia, Ramaz Mosashvili.

Q. What was the starting point of your company? And since then, how Iberia Real State has developed?
A. Although we had a wide experience in providing construction services earlier, Iberia as a developer company was established in 1999. What makes our company superior is that Iberia offers state-of-the-art architecture design service additionally to construction service, which our competitors might offer. Moreover, Iberia has shown an outstanding performance throughout the years: since its inception the company has built residential houses and office spaces of total 40,000 square meter area but we have more ambitious targets – currently the company is building about 20,000 square meter area.

Q. Georgia has seen construction boom in recent years. How would you compare the situation in construction business to that in neighboring countries?
A. The market in Georgia is developing dynamically and very fast. Although the prices on real estate fall behind of those in Europe but the increasing demand is driving them high. For comparison, prices on real estate in Georgia have doubled in just a year. Moreover, prices are often affected by political situation. For instance, 1 square meter space in neighboring Azerbaijan costs about 3000 dollars, almost five times as much as in Georgia. Furthermore, I would emphasize the role of intellectual resources in the construction business. In general, Georgians were always famous for their building skills in the USSR. Georgia has really skilled architects and workers but the construction business is still far from being at the level of Europe. European construction companies are benefiting from high quality standards materials and cutting-edge equipment.

Q. What about the demand on your products?
A. Since the product we offer is rather new for the local population, the demand is high on the dwelling houses. The demand on the office area is rather moderate, however. The key of our success lies in the modern architecture, new style of the dwelling houses which we offer. You know, the houses built in the Soviet era looks really ugly today and modern structures and designs do attract customers.

Q. What has changed in the construction business since 90’s?
A. The main point I would say is that customers have become more demanding. Now they pay more attention to the exterior too, while in the past times they cared more about how reliable and strong the buildings were and what their life expectancy was.

Q. Let’s get back to your company. How is Iberia trying to attract new investors? What is the strategy?
A. Our strategy is only hard work and commitment to achieve success. We are doing an uphill battle and our investors would extend hand of partnership if they see we are going to reach the top and are putting great effort in our business.

Q. Why should investors come to Georgia?
A. Of course, it depends on the financial resources, but I think that the investors who made investments in Eastern Europe will head for Georgia as well. The privatization drive has brought about the market expansion as the state assets becomes private property. With private property people are more interested to expand it and get more private gains. So, we do expect that the market will further increase which will make Georgia more attractive for foreign investors.