There are 8.4 million homes in Romania, of which two million are adobe structures and 0.7 million were built before 1944, Marius Marin, vice-president of PRO BCA and CEO of construction company Macon, said Thursday at the Romania Construct Forum conference, organized by MEDIAFAX.
Marin said the most new housing units were built in 2008 (64,414 new homes), the equivalent of about 3.1 new housing per one thousand inhabitants.
In 2009, Romania built 61,101 housing units (2.9 homes per thousand inhabitants), in 2010, it built 48,812 housing units (2.1 homes per thousand inhabitants), and 2011 is estimated to end with 42 – 44,000 new housing units (1.85 – 1.95 homes per thousand inhabitants, said Marin.
“The European average is of 4.7-4.8 new homes per thousand inhabitants. To cover that lag, Romania would have to build about 100,000 new housing units per year,” he added.
The PRO BCA association considers the local construction market is currently blocked bioth by financial conditions but there is also a psychological blockage. Also, the association says, the Government’s programs to stimulate home buying have not been as successful as expected.