Romania Property Market
♫ February 25th, 2011 2:16 amBefore the communist regime, Romania’s economy and real estate market was similar to other European countries’. Bucharest was even called “the little Paris” because of the architectural similitude. During the next decades most privately owned houses in cities were demolished and the population was forced to live in block apartments. These apartments were small, bad finished and were offering poor living conditions. In late 90′s the state owned all the apartments. A political decision allowed tenants to buy the apartments for small prices. Nowadays 90% of the residential properties in Romania are owned by their inhabitants. After 1990 many Romanians tried to regain the properties confiscated from them or their relatives. The restitution was not well regarded by political regimes in late 90′s so the process was long and many owners had to fight in court for their rights.
The good news is that today housing situation in Romania is not good. Romanian society has seen some radical structural transformations, with many political, psychological and economical changes. There is a great need for new houses and economical growth in late years has provided the means to satisfy such needs. So everything is set to profit from Romanian real estate market. Most part of the urban population is living in old communist apartments especially because there is no real alternative.
Looking on Bucharest streets 5-6 years ago you would saw many old, improper cars. Today streets are full with new, modern cars, auto industry and auto trading being one of the most profitable economical sectors in the country. The same will happen with the real estate. Of course, there are differences between real estate market and the auto market, but the psychological and economical factors that will bring the change are the very same: people don’t like their old communist houses and they have increasing access to economical resources. With many foreign investments and increasing productivity, income in Romania is on a very positive trend. EU integration has brought the opportunity for millions of people to work abroad. These people are sending 6 billion euro annually and most of the money are invested in real estate properties.

