29.11.2007
ROMPRES - Romanian News Agency
ROMPRES
The Romanian real estate market, characterized by an amazing boost in the prices, is quite atypical, with no reasonable predictability, and with the increases recorded on certain segments being unlikely for the European market at large, real estate management professor with UFI Brussels Artur Silvestri said.
He also added that the prices of the apartments in the old blocks are six to nine times higher compared with the level in 2003. Moreover, the plots for investments in Bucharest are ten times more expensive compared with the level in 2000. Also, in some regions of the country, wrongly considered as having a development potential, the prices of the plots of land came to reach even 25 times the level 6 or 7 years ago.
The atypical character of the market was also seen in the big cities. Although 97 percent of the Romanian real estate fund is private, the demand for housing has reached such proportions that are hard to imagine.
In the context there have been built a lot of houses in the last year, the official data point to 4.5 million young people wanting a house and not being able to get it because they do not have the necessary amounts and because they do not qualify for the mortgage loans at the banks.
At the same time, the apartments in the newly erected blocks presented by the real estate agents as being luxury market have no other customers than the speculators and ‘the real estate brokers’ who have a lot of money and hunt for immediate and huge gains.
‘This is an absurd evolution we are talking about and apparently inexplicable,’ professor Silvestri told the Bursa daily. In his opinion, this’ big financial game’ with an unknown finish, is to grow, probably in the next two or three years, due to specific propaganda means on the stock exchange, maintaining thus ‘the illusion of a waterfall gain’ in the case of most participants in real estate deals.
Compared to other countries, professor Silvestri said, Romania benefits from a rich and diversified real estate market including ‘housing’ and ‘residences’ both urban and rural, boyar’s houses, palaces and castles in various architectonic styles, country ‘cottages’ and ‘loisir real estate,’ that is mountain- and sea located housing.
At the same time, there is a land fund compatible with large agricultural exploitations and forests. Nevertheless, Romania is an expensive and cheap market at the same time. The market is cheap when compared to prices in similar categories, like when one sees that the value of a hectare of land in fertile fields can be bought for 400-700 euros, but can be found no where else in Europe, except in Bulgaria.
_____________________________
____________________________
