About 74,500 houses were built in Romania last year, bringing the total number of houses to almost 10 million, according to data released on Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics. This is against the background of complete aging of the population and demographic decline.

Also, according to statistics, there are about 8 million families in Romania, but we also have approx 1.5 million unoccupied houses (16.4% of the total number of conditional housing units)

Given the recent increase in housing stock and high vacancy rates, it is likely that home buying can be interpreted as an investment by people with enough money, contributing to the apparent increase in demand for housing, even if it is simply an investment in real estate.

There is massive construction going on in Romania, at least in the capital and a few big cities or what are considered magnet cities, where people go because they know they will find work.

And young people (who leave their parents’ home also due to economic difficulties at the age of about 30) borrow to obtain a mortgage loan at an average age of 35.

According to data from the National Bank requested by HotNews, the average age at which Romanians take out their first bank loan rose slightly to 35.09 in December 2023, while the median age was 34.08.

The median age divides into two equal halves the number of those who take the first loan in our case; half of Romanians who borrowed for the first time from banks were younger than 34.08 years, and the other half exceeded this limit.

Residents of Bucharest and Brasov take out their first loan at the oldest average age (35.2 years), while at the opposite end are Gorz, Teleorman and Mehedinci.

It is true that Romania has a culture of ownership rather than living in rent, but this may change with the absorption of Western models, even if it happens slowly over time. The young population is decreasing, so the demand for loans can develop in the same direction. In addition, the number of outstanding mortgage loans at the end of December 2023 was about 596,000, which is less than in December 2022 and 2021, respectively.

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To get a two-room apartment in Cluj, you work about the same as for a similar apartment in Vienna

Some people can find it difficult to get a mortgage because the loan requires a down payment, a stable income high enough to pay the installments, and getting used to the stress of not having anything bad happen to you for the next 15-20-30 years, your income.

Now the residents of Cluj must make every effort to buy a house with an area of ​​60 square meters without taking a loan from the bank. They need 139 months of work at the average salary in Cluj, on the absurd assumption that they will save all of their monthly income.

As for the time required to buy a 2-room house (55 sq m), without taking into account living expenses or savings and without financial support from banks, the highest level of the indicator is recorded in Cluj County, where it takes approximately 11 years to buy a house.

To buy a house with an area of ​​55 square meters. m without a real estate loan, it takes about 12 years in Vienna, almost 18 years in Prague and about 15 years in Budapest and Warsaw, BNR data also show.

On the other hand, in counties such as Giurgiu, the indicator does not exceed the value of six years.

First House helped the market, but…

The “Prima casa” program facilitated home ownership through state-guaranteed mortgage loans. However, the program did not set any income limits for its beneficiaries. Although available data on beneficiaries is limited, preliminary consultations with the banking sector indicate that the main beneficiary of this program are urban middle-income families.

In this regard, this program has done little to support affordability for low-income segments of the population, say the authors of the Housing Strategy.

Raising the maximum amount to 140,000 euros for the purchase of a new home does not give all categories of the population access to adequate and affordable housing in terms of price, from the point of view that the costs related to housing fall on the family budget built in an affordable area in terms of services and technical construction equipment, being a measure that artificially led to higher prices for new houses and implicitly to builders building certain types of houses with limited usable area, reducing the opportunity for new owners to choose a house with a surface adapted to new housing needs and requirements.