The increasing interest of Romanians to rent homes is generated by the decreasing affordability of purchasing homes, especially the ones from the new stock. This is due to increasing financing costs for bank loans as Romania’s key interest rate has already reached 7%.

“As the gap between mortgage rate and rent reduces amid rising market prices and tighter lending conditions, we see an increasing demand for rents. This demand has so far been met by small investors buying up packages of apartments and putting them on the rental market, but now it is starting to attract the attention of the big players,” said Gabriel Blăniță, Associate Director Valuation & Advisory Services at Colliers Romania.

Meanwhile, residential sales in January 2023 were down across major cities except Bucharest. Colliers experts estimate that there are 20% fewer transactions compared to the beginning of last year, and the rise in interest rates will result in a considerable slowdown for home sales.

Last year, sales of apartments in Bucharest rose by 11% while in the rest of the country demand was down 10%.