A number of international property consultants gathered in Bucharest last week to officially launch the Real Estate Professionals Society (REPS) in an effort to promote higher professional standards in the Romanian market.

Founding members of the association include BNP Paribas Real Estate, CB Richard Ellis, Colliers Romania, Coldwell Banker, Cushman & Wakefield, DTZ Echinox, Jones Lang Lasalle, and Knight Frank. REPS, which is headed by Mihnea Serbanescu of DTZ Echinox, will seek to promote the local industry's interests, while striving to improve the quality of services and facilitate the dialogue with public authorities.

'It is for the first time in the existence of the modern real estate market in Romania that all the key representatives of the international consulting companies agree to set up a common platform, with a unitary set of objectives and to act as one to raise the professional standards, to increase the quality of the services to clients and to improve the legal framework of the real estate business,' said Serbanescu, president of REPS.

'The initiative shows that the local real estate market has significantly matured and it is now ready to take firm steps towards an alignment with the more established international markets, in what concerns methodology, ethics and performance,' she added.