Real Estate: Selling prices for big city new apartments keep on rising

   Selling prices for big city new apartments continue to rise at a steady pace which in the last 30 days has been up to 4 percent in Timisoara or Constanta; Iasi city is the only exception, with an evolution that goes against the trend recorded in all the other large urban centers, shows a survey conducted by real estate website Imobiliare.ro.Apartment prices in the surveyed medium-sized cities follow the same upward trendline, with Oradea in the leading position (+1.8 percent), followed by Sibiu and Craiova.The Imobiliare.ro nationwide residential market index hit a new record high of 1,598 euros/usable sqm, whereas in Bucharest this indicator stands at an all-high of 1,723 euros/sqm, up by 11-plus percent year-over-year. A new maximum was also reached for old apartments, at 1,705 euros/sqm.The average asking price for new apartments in Bucharest is 1,875 euros/sqm, up 16 percent compared to May 2023.According to the survey, Cluj-Napoca remains the most expensive city in the country for buyers who are looking for an apartment. With a 3 percent increase alone in the last 30 days, the average asking price for new homes reached 2,960 euros/usable sqm at the end of May. The annual growth rate for apartments put up for sale in Cluj-Napoca has hovered around 10 percent both for the general average price and for the two main segments, new and old. The average asking price for old apartments is 2,735 euros/sqm.With an average price of 1,907 euros/sqm for both new and old apartments, Brasov strengthens its position as the second most expensive city in the country on the residential market."The average asking price for new apartments is 2,224 euros per square meter, making Brasov the only city in Romania - with the exception of Cluj - where the figure for new apartments has exceeded the threshold of 2,000 euros/sqm. With an average asking price of 1,826 euros/sqm, up 18.2 percent from the same period last year, old homes are more affordable," the cited survey states.According to the Imobiliare.ro index, Timisoara is ahead of Bucharest in terms of asking prices for new apartments, with an increase of almost 22 percent in the last 12 months and 4 percent in the last 30 days. The average price in this segment is currently 1,960 euros/sqm, placing Timisoara back among the top three cities with the most expensive new apartments.Old apartments, which are listed for an average value of 1,568 euros/sqm and which have seen an average increase of 7 percent over the past year, remain much more budget-friendly.At the opposite end of the scale is Ploiesti, where the average asking price for apartments is 1,116 euros/sqm, with the lowest annual advance among the surveyed cities, of just 3.4 percent.