In the second quarter of 2018, asking prices for residential property in Romania increased 1.4% compared with the first quarter and 4.7% compared with the second quarter of 2017, the report noted.
“Starting with the second half of 2017, the growth rate of asking prices for residential property has slowed due to volatility of demand under the First Home program, lower supply of properties for sale and an insufficient number of newly-built housing,” said Adrian Erimescu, CEO Imobiliare.ro.
“For the first time in the past three years, demand for residential property in Romania’s main cities has decreased by 5%. Sales also dwindled slightly in the second half of 2018. The number of residential property deals fell 1.3% on the year, to 151,481. With a modest economic growth in the first half of the year, Analize Imobiliare expects a drop in the number of transactions in the second half of the year and housing prices are expected to stagnate,” said Dorel Nita, head of data and research at Imobiliare.ro and project manager at AnalizeImobiliare.ro.
In the second quarter of the year, housing prices in Romania’s main cities grew at a much slower rate than in past years. In Cluj-Napoca, asking prices for apartments grew 1.9% quarter-to-quarter, to EUR1,510/sqm. Compared with the same period last year, prices are 14% higher.
In capital Bucharest, asking prices for housing grew 2.2% quarter-to-quarter in the second quarter, to EUR1,280/sqm, and annual growth stood at 4.4%.