One of the causes for this is the poor infrastructure, which gives an edge to the big cities of the country, said Alexandru Stanean, general manager of Teraplast, at the ZF Offices&Residential 2016 event organized by ZF in partnership with Arabesque, Teraplast, Regatta, DTZ Echinox and PwC on Wednesday.
A comparison between Bistrita and Cluj, for instance, shows the price per square meter is 40% lower in the former, he said. “Since it takes two hours to get from Bistrita to Cluj, it is obviously more attractive to work in Cluj.”
George Stamate, head of infrastructure sales with Arabesque, a construction materials company with EUR348 million sales, believes that the public-private partnership is a solution to address the infrastructure problem in Romania, but to do that the country needs an improvement of the legislative framework.
Investment in infrastructure is the most important thing for the real estate sector and nothing can be done without a long-term strategy, said Eduard Uzunov, chairman of Regatta Estate.
“Infrastructure investment is the most important thing in real state. It takes medium and long-term planning, knowing where subway stations will be, when a beltway is built. No one knows; one mayor comes, then leaves, another comes. We cannot do anything without a long-term strategy and infrastructure is essential.”
Beyond forecasts and strategies, developers are still wondering about the impact of the debt discharge law, especially in the residential area, which will send ripples throughout other related areas, though.
“The debt discharge law has become a hindrance to the growth of the businesses on the do-it-yourself market in Romania,” said Omer Susli DIY retailer Praktiker owner.
“After 2009, 2016 looked set to be the best year, judging from the results in the first few months of the year until the debt discharge law came. To save 2,000 to 3,000 Romanian citizens we’re sacrificing 20 million Romanians. The debt discharge law cut sales like a knife.”
Andreea Comsa, managing director with Premier Estate Management, says that although she has yet to notice any effects of the law on the sales of apartments, the effects will probably start showing next year, especially if the First Home scheme is discontinued.
Developers do not expect the prices on the segment to go down over the coming period, because they feel the cheap apartments have already skimped on quality and cannot go any lower.
The most important thing on the market is that compared with 2008, the demand structure is much healthier, with 99% of the buyers being end users, not investors looking to resell.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)