House prices were up 9.82% during the year to Q3 2021

Romania’s housing market is growing strongly again, amidst improving economic conditions. The average selling price of apartments in Romania rose by 9.82% in Q3 2021 from a year earlier, a sharp improvement from a minuscule y-o-y increase of 0.45% in Q3 2020. On a quarterly basis, Romanian real house prices increased slightly by 0.34% in Q3 2021.

House price growth averaged 8.7% annually from 2015 to 2017 before slowing to 3.3% in 2018, 4% in 2019 and a minuscule 0.4% in 2020. Romania’s strong performance before the pandemic was a rebound from previous dramatic falls. House prices plunged by 24.22% in 2009, 22.08% in 2010, 6.99% in 2011, 5.96% in 2012, 10.43% in 2013, and 1.59% in 2014. It was only in 2015 that the housing market began to recover. 

 

Demand continues to rise; residential construction recovers strongly

In Q3 2021, the total number of properties sold nationwide soared about 31% to 186,000 units from a year earlier, following a 11.6% growth during 2020, according to the National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration (NACLR). 

Residential construction is rising again. In the first half of 2021, the total number of residential building permits in Romania rose strongly by 36.8% y-o-y to 24,451, following a 2.9% decline in 2020, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS). Likewise, the area of residential building permits issued surged 24.2% y-o-y to 5.66 million sq. m. over the same period, after falling by 4.4% last year.

Rents, rental yields: good yields at 6.07%

Bucharest apartment costs are low, at around €1,591 per sq. m.

Romania: typical city centre apartment buying price, monthly rent (120 sq. m)
	Buying price	Rate per month	Yield
Bucharest	€ 190,920	€ 966	6.07%

Recent news: Romania’s economy expanded by 13.9% and 7.2% y-o-y in Q2 and Q3 2021, rebounding strongly from four consecutive quarters of year-on-year declines, amidst the easing of lockdown measures in the country, according to the INS. The European Commission projects the Romanian economy to grow strongly by 7% this year, and by another 5.1% in 2022. The economy shrank by 3.9% last year, in sharp contrast to an annual average growth of 3.9% from 2011 to 2019, as the COVID-19 pandemic took a huge toll on economic activity.