Roxa

Hello guys, does anyone lives in Romania?
My husband has a new job offer over there and we are thinking of doing it. Also, do you know if expats can own properties over there? If we will do it we will most probably buy something in Bucharest. We will go there in 3 weeks to check the area. If anyone can recommend a good area to invest will be perfect. We are watching the market a little bit lately, but we can not understand if 1400 euro per m2 is an ok price...or not.
Any advice will be much appreciated

For example, 1400 euro, somewhere in Bucharest...<snip>
The thing is that we don't know the areas very well, so maybe someone can tell us a good area to look in Bucharest

Azarel

Hi Roxa,

Yes, expats can own properties here. Anyone can buy a house or a flat, but only EU citizens can own land (for example, the land a house is built on), although that can be solved but putting the land in a company's name for non-EU citizens.

Price per m2 for apartments varies according to location and quality of the finish and so on, so hard to say if it's good or not. According to some real estate sites, the overall average price per m2 is currently about 1350 Euro with new builds being slightly more, around 1400 Euro/m2. New two-bedroom apartments also seem to command a higher price per m2 (cc 1500 Euro/2).

As for areas, it's quite a mixed bag. You can have a neighbourhood with luxury new-builds next to slummy old blocks, but generally the north of the city is more expensive and desirable. It depends on what you want to do with your investment, what you want to be close to, and so on. Traffic is pretty bad at rush hour here, so you might want something with easy access to your husband's place of work, or at least to the metro.

Roxa

Thank you for your response. I have read about the traffic, terrible. Well, I think that having a home next to a metro station would be a good idea

Azarel

Also, thinking long-term, a place close to the metro would be easier to rent out to young professionals. Obviously though, that might be reflected in the purchase price. You could take a look at the Primaverii, Aviatiei, Cartierul Francez and Pipera neighbourhoods in the north of town. There is a metro connection (three stations: Pipera, Aurel Vlaicu and Aviatorilor) and also some parks and malls and so on. Not sure how frequently new builds come on the market, but certainly worth a look.

Roxa

Off, still looking I will go to Bucharest next week and check things closely Online is very difficult to take a decision

scot47

Rule 1 - Learn Romanian.
Riule 2 - Learn as much as you can about the History and the Culture

For many years I lived in the Dobruja - a territory disputed by Bulgaria and Romania. I was on the Bulgarian side butlearned to like and respect our Northern neigh bours. Bucharest was too noisy and too crowded for me !