The housing market showed no visible signs of recovery towards the end of last year, with the last three months of 2011 seeing an almost 8% decline in deliveries, slightly less than the market average.
Last year was the third consecutive year of decline for the housing market, and according to the ZF real estate index, compiled in collaboration with Coldwell Banker consultancy, 2012 started out with new price declines for three-room old apartments in Bucharest, and this will continue to keep real estate investors waiting.
The construction market fell 4% over the past year and the number of finalized houses fell by 9%, with the biggest decline being recorded in the Bucharest-Ilfov area, by 23%, according to data from the National Statistics Institute. In other words, the Bucharest housing market fell five times the rate of the overall construction market, estimated at EUR9.3 billion in 2011.
Before the crisis, the Bucharest market used to be the hottest market, but now it is the area struggling hard to recover: in 2008, there were 8,326 houses built in the Bucharest-Ilfov area and, over the past year, the number of finalized houses fell to below 5,000, a 40% decline against the high point.
On the other hand, house building in rural areas fell by just 2% last year against 2010, while in counties in western Romania house building started to rise, with the number of houses finalized in 2011 rising 10% on the year.
The prices charged on old apartments in Bucharest continue to fall, with the average price of three-room apartments dipping by 0.5% since the beginning of the year, to EUR77,750, according to the real estate index compiled by ZF and Coldwell Banker.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)