Romania real estate market 2022. How much will housing prices increase in Romania?

Will home purchase prices fall further? According to financial analysts, this day is far away. 2021 is the year in which some of the biggest players on the real estate market had to adapt to the demand, outlined against the background of the pandemic. The real estate industry is uneven, some segments have gained ground (residential developers of houses or apartments with large terraces) and others have stagnated (developers of offices, retail or industrial). According to analysts, one of the reasons for the rise in real estate prices is due to inflation and easy-to-access money on the market. Another source is the labor shortage and the crisis of raw materials that has led to higher prices for construction materials, so automatically increase the costs of real estate developers.
This year began with a sense of uncertainty, followed by a gradual return. The second year of the pandemic has left its mark on the vast majority of industries, including real estate. Most of the construction raw materials followed an upward trend in prices, which was automatically reduced to the final price of a newly built building. The beginning of 2022 materialized with the maintenance of a trend of price increases, already registering the first increases in the main cities of Romania.
The office sector continues to face the most significant demand challenges (this has been exacerbated for more than 24 months as a direct effect of working from home). Romanians’ work routines have undergone changes and a significant number of companies have approved hybrid arrangements that combine office activities with remote work. In Bucharest, however, there is still a constant demand for high quality office space, focused on the needs of tenants, flexibility and how well they are integrated into the community. On the other hand, the declining demand, from a strictly real estate point of view, has even been beneficial for smaller companies, as it has helped smaller firms to obtain special rental offers and improve the work experience of their employees.
The vast majority of customers are looking for units located both in the city center and in the metropolitan area, and are looking for a more generous space, with a terrace or even a garden, because they feel the need to upgrade their current lifestyle. However, today’s customers no longer just look at the price per square meter, as they did in the past, but are more concerned with quality of life, safety and comfort, energy efficiency or lower maintenance costs. The second category of clientele is the one that sees residential assets as a long-term investment that pays off over time. More and more Romanians are turning to real estate to protect their capital, because the risks of inflation are increasingly prominent.
Record prices for the beginning of the year were recorded in Brasov. The same goes for the city of Bucharest and Cluj. Specialists in the real estate market say that the growth rates will be higher compared to the same period of 2021.