WHAT HAS CHANGED ON THE RESIDENTIAL MAP OF ROMANIA IN THE LAST 30 YEARS?

Nearly 68,000 new housing units were brought into use in 2020 nationwide, data available on the NSI tempo platform shows, including both publicly and privately funded projects.

The conclusion is that only 14 counties have increased their residential growth in the last three decades, and an advance of more than 100%, comparing 2020 to 1990, was recorded only in six counties – Brasov, Cluj, Constanta, Ilfov, Sibiu and Timis, plus Bucharest.

Thus, where business is done and where investors are interested in building, Romanians want to live, find jobs and start families.

Just looking at the evolution of the last decade, the number of houses delivered annually in each county of the country and the spectacular increases in some counties, such as Brasov (plus 139%), Sibiu (plus 101%) or Timis (plus 223%) indicate both the degree of residential, economic and social development, and people’s appetite for housing.

On the other hand, counties such as Vrancea (minus 50%), Suceava (minus 52%), Neamt (minus 51%), where the decrease in the number of dwellings delivered annually exceeds 50%, indicate a depopulation trend in Moldova, leaving room for exceptions such as Bacau (plus 12%) or Iasi (plus 8%).

Moldova is seen as one of the poorest regions of the country, which investors have been shying away from for lack of infrastructure to support business development. There has been talk for years about a motorway linking Moldova to Bucharest, but so far the work has remained on hold. However, the number of housing units delivered in 2020 will fall by more than 50% compared to 2010 in Caras-Severin and Teleorman counties.

Overall, in 16 counties in the country more houses were delivered in 2020 compared to 2010, the rest reporting decreases, according to data centralized by ZF from the National Institute of Statistics. In Bucharest, the number increased fivefold.

The years 2007, 2008, 2009 were the best years in terms of residential development in Romania, culminating with the economic crisis, which put an end to large-scale projects. From 2013-2014, the market started to go back on an upward trend.

We have another interesting indicator: the annual development rate in recent years and in terms of the largest cities, there are differences. The pace of residential development in the most economically “powerful” cities in Romania in recent years is uneven, as shown by the analysis of the latest information published by the National Institute of Statistics. Thus, if in Bucharest and Constanta were delivered last year more houses than in 2019, cities such as Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara have recorded decreases. For Constanta, the 1,217 houses and apartments completed in 2020 represent an advance of 13% compared to the previous year and a return to the plus side, after the total deliveries had dropped considerably in 2019.

In Bucharest, on the other hand, the number of homes delivered reached 13,821 in 2020, passing the 10,000 mark for the first time. The increase is 60% compared to 2019, when a record had also been set up to that point, with over 8,600 deliveries. For the first time, Bucharest has become the scene of such a large number of houses and apartments, developers being driven by the pandemic context to rush projects already started, for fear of being left with unsold blocks and houses.

The information is taken from the study conducted by ZF based on data from INSSE.