Romania’s residential market is heading for a new record in deliveries this year as well, but the development pace has not kept up with the evolution of demand over the past two years, Colliers consultants point out.
In Bucharest, the gap between the number of transactions and housing deliveries increased by more than 50% last year compared to 2019.
The outbreak of the pandemic collapsed housing demand in Q2 2020, when the market froze and saw a brief period of price declines after 7 years of successive increases.
Currently, the gap between supply and demand remains significant, but there are signs that this corridor is starting to narrow as deliveries increase and demand slows.
In the rest of the country, this evolution was even more striking, with the difference between the number of transactions and deliveries increasing almost threefold in the last period compared to 2019.
Cluj Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara, Constanta and Brasov are the main poles where demand for housing in the country is concentrated, with around a third of transactions nationwide recorded here in total.
The capital’s metropolitan area is responsible for another third, and the other 35 counties together make up the final third.
Over 21,000 units are now under construction in Bucharest and its surroundings, about 7,000 units in Iasi and over 5,000 in Cluj Napoca.
The apartment transactions market set new records last year in terms of both sales and deliveries
In total, 71,405 homes were delivered nationwide in 2021, up 5% compared to the previous year. The total surface authorized by developers in 2021 increased by more than 15% over 2020, to more than 12 million square meters.
In Q1 2022 there was an 11% increase in the number of built housing units compared to the same period last year, and the volume of investments in new housing increased by 21%.
The value of investments in the construction of new housing reached 4.6 billion lei in Q1, an increase of over 50%.