Romania maintains the third position in the top of the European countries with the cheapest new housing, after Bosnia and Greece, with an average price of 1,504 EUR/sqm in 2023, slightly up from 1,461 EUR/sqm in 2022, according to Deloitte Property Index 2024.
By contrast, Austria remains the most expensive country, with 4,920 EUR/sqm in 2023, followed by Germany (4,700 EUR/sqm), France (4,538 EUR/sqm), but all these countries recorded lower prices compared to 2022.
Overall, 15 out of the 24 countries saw increases in average prices for new dwellings, the most important being in Hungary (+13.3%) and Poland (+12.2%), while significant decreases were noted in Italy (-10.7%), Denmark (-3.8%), Norway (-3.5%) and the United Kingdom (-3.3%).
If in 2022 a Romanian needed 6.3 average gross annual salaries at national level to purchase a new 70 sqm dwelling, in 2023 the average dropped to 5.9 salaries.
This places our country fourth in the top of the affordability, after Denmark (4.7 gross annual salaries), Norway (4.8) and Italy (5.3). The least affordable European country among those analyzed is the Czech Republic.
Paris continues to lead the top of the most expensive European cities, with an average price of 14,900 EUR/sqm for a new apartment, followed by Munich (10,900 EUR/sqm) and inner London (8,018 EUR/sqm).
In Romania, the most expensive city is Cluj-Napoca, with 2,434 EUR/sqm and 3% increase compared to the previous year, while Bucharest ranks second, with 1,726 EUR/sqm, followed by Brasov, with 1,618 EUR/sqm.