The price of housing, increasing

The average price of residential properties increased by almost 8% at the national level in the first quarter of 2024, compared to the similar interval of 2023, up to 1,563 euros/usable square meter, shows an analysis carried out by Imobiliare.ro. The most expensive city for home buyers remains Cluj-Napoca, where the average asking price is 2,631 euros/square meter, followed by Brașov (1,789 euros/square meter). As for the negotiation margin, owners in Constanța are willing to leave an average of 4.2% of the price, and those in Brașov and Iasi only 2.4%.

“The interest of buyers is maintained at a good level at the beginning of this year, but the supply of houses and apartments available on the market is limited. If we take into account the current conditions on the credit market and the favorable perspectives that can be seen in the medium term at its level, we can say that we can expect to see further increases in housing prices in the next period”, reveals the data of the market report carried out by the site Imobiliare.ro.

In Bucharest, the average asking price for sale is 1,578 euros/useful square meter. The authors of the analysis warn against the temptation that some buyers have to purchase housing in the area of ​​”periphery projects”, cheap, whose value will remain derisory, or in buildings “with compromise – in terms of quality, location, surfaces”. “The capital is full of such examples that explain to a large extent why Bucharest is surpassed (in terms of price/sqm, no) by Cluj-Napoca, Brasov and soon by all the secondary cities”, said, according to Agerpres, Daniel Crainic, marketing director of Imobiliare.ro.

An increase of 5.2% could also be observed in terms of the number of transactions, in January-March almost 145,500 properties were sold nationally, according to the National Cadastre Agency. A spectacular evolution was recorded in Iaşi county, where there were about 7,600 transactions, over the counties of Timiş, Braşov, Cluj and Constanţa.

In the first three months of the year, many of the buyers focused their attention, as a priority, on new homes, completed after 2020, but the old market is also gaining ground. For every old building in Bucharest there were two potential buyers, while for every new house in Constanta there were four potential buyers.

Another aspect is the fact that Romanians negotiate, sometimes “by blood”, when purchasing a house. “Negotiation is a normal thing for buyers. It is important, however, that their expectations are realistic regarding the reductions they can obtain”, say the analysts. The negotiation margin – the percentage difference between the transaction price and the last requested price – is, in reality, quite small. The owners in Braşov and Iași, for example, are less willing to let the price down (they accept a 2.4% discount) compared to those in Cluj-Napoca or Timisoara (3.5%), Bucharest (3.9%) ) or Constanta (4.2%). (CZ)