“Most apartments in Bucharest were available at prices below EUR1,000 per square meter. Still, levels obtained following negotiation can be significantly lower than the asking price. Despite ups and downs in past quarters, the average price of a home remained roughly the same compared to 2010. However, prices may still decline, considering the poor sales seen in the market,” the report reads.
According to analysts, considering that there were no changes in offer, pricing and demand on the residential market throughout 2011, performance on this segment may be poorer than in 2010.
“Supply still consists of the projects launched in the boom period. There is still a low volume of investment in residential projects. Asking prices remained relatively stable, even though prices may decline in the near future. There were very few residential projects delivered in the past several months. A great deal of investment is still on hold. In the third quarter, the offer consisted of some 3,500 homes,” the report notes.
Regarding demand, “extremely poor” performance on the mortgage lending market this year determined a decrease in home sales compared to 2010.
“Although the amount of purchases made with cash should not be underestimated, the number of homes sold this year is more and more likely to be lower than in 2010. This is greatly due to low transparency in the market. A series of unfavorable events (insolvencies, bankruptcies and frozen projects) greatly reduced confidence,” according to the report.