In all, 51,578 homes were completed by private investors last year compared with 50,978 in 2016, according to the National Statistics Institute data. The growth stood at about 10%.
The number of homes completed in either cities or rural areas did not match the 2008 level, an all-time high for Romania. That year, 61,171 homes were completed in cities and villages, the National Statistics Institute data show, which means about 20% more than in 2017.
“We’ll be able to reach the 62,000-home level of 2008 in the next few years if the growth pace remains at about 10% a year. We’ve had something that caused certain problems in each of the last few years. Now we have the ROBOR, in the past we had the First Home scheme, the debt discharge law and others. If there is no macroeconomic turmoil, we may reach the 2008 level again,” said Gabriel Voicu, head of the New Homes division of real estate consultant Coldwell Banker Romania.
About 18% more homes were built in cities than in rural areas last year. Things used to be different until 2014, as rural areas attracted more residential investment. In 2006, the number of new homes delivered in rural areas was 20% higher than in cities, while in 2000 it was even more than 50% higher.
“There are two reasons that can explains this. On the one hand, the regional centers such as Cluj, Iasi and Constanta have grown, where more homes were delivered inside the city as a result of their development in the past three or four years. On the other hand, there’s been a change in the customers’ attitude, who no longer seek homes on the outskirts of the cities – which are part of the rural areas, but in central and semi-central city locations,” Gabriel Voicu added.
Another factor is that a number of areas in the outskirts of the cities, which were considered rural have been included in cities in the past few years.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)