One out of ten Romanians plan to buy a house in the next three years

11% of the Romanian population envisages buying a house in the following three years, this being the highest percentage in Central and Eastern Europe, according to a study carried out by UniCredit Financial Group.

“The estimates are even better for Bucharest; around 200.000, out of 2, 2 Mill inhabitants have the possibility to buy a house in the following three years, meaning an annual growth of 70.000 units. Taking into consideration the fact that this year only, around 5.000 units will be delivered, the demand will still be very high, considering the offer.

In other Central and Eastern European countries, 6% of the population envisages to buy a house in the following three years, 7% in the next ten years and 6% after ten years. The lowest demand is in Ukraine, where only 2% of the population estimate to buy a house in the next three years, followed by Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary, where 4% of the population plan to buy a house in the following three years.

Romanians plan to purchase a house three or four years in advance, and those who would like to buy a house after ten years are very young or work in state institutions where they have fix salaries and the increase rhythm is very low”, Ilinca Paun, Manager of the Colliers Real Estate Division, stated. “On the real estate market the ratio between the old and new dwellings is 65% to 35%, we believe that in the next three – four years this ratio will invert. The delivery terms do not depend only on the demand, but also on labour force and its costs based on the cost of the construction materials.”

In respect to the old dwellings market, Colliers’ representative added that there isn’t a general price decrease for old dwellings, prices depending on areas and facilities.

Colliers specialist explained that, taking into consideration the ratio between the demand and the offer of new dwellings, it is normal that an important amount of buyers will still purchase old houses, a couple of years from now. “The fear related to the crash of the real estate market is not grounded because the demand is very high. If 11% of the population plan to buy a house, means that these people have the money and have taken into account all the conditions, including the current mortgage loan conditions, which are not very easy” Ilinca Paun said.

There is a current demand of 130.000 apartments on the Bucharest real estate market; according to Colliers’ estimates. Developers have to decide whether they will remain or not on this market. “Due to a significant increase of land prices, the developers had to reduce their profit in order to offer apartments with market prices. If, until now, all projects announced were sold out immediately, from now on developers will pay more attention to the quality of their projects.”

UniCredit Tiriac Bank is part of the UniCredit Group network – the biggest banking group in Central and Eastern Europe – and is one of the most important players on the Romanian banking market, with assets amounting EUR 3.7 Bill. UniCredit Tiriac Bank has around 600,000 clients and 179 branches throughout Romania.

The Bank provides in Romania a large variety of products and specialized services through its partners: UniCredit Leasing Corporation, CA-IB Securities, UniCredit CAIB Romania, UniCredit Insurance Broker, Pioneer Asset Management, UniCredit Markets and Investment Banking, UniCredit Processes and Administration and HVB Mortgage Bank.