Real estate: Study: Housing prices may slow down growth rate this year

Higher housing prices will be seen this year, especially in the main urban centers of the country, where demand remains at a high level, and where the growth rate will be slower, while the 2024 rate is not sustainable on a long run, according to a market analysis made by an online real estate platform.   “Apartment prices at national level went up by 13% last year. In some of the big cities they were even higher. In Brasov, for instance, there was a 20% price rise”, the study shows.   According to Imobiliare.ro, prices continued to grow in 2025. At the beginning of March there was a 4% increase to the price requested by owners and developers for apartments for sale , compared to the end of 2024.   At the same time, the house renting segment could become more attractive. “The rental segment has the potential of becoming stronger in Romania, once the housing prices have gone up and with the growing interest shown by developers to build-to-rent projects. This return of the renting market comes after a time when profits obtained by owners dropped. Even if it did not remain the same, the rent requested from tenants went up at a slower rate than sales prices of apartments and houses,”the analysis shows.   Rents for two-room apartments, the most in demand among tenants which also have the highest share in offers, have gone up by 5%-11% last year, in big cities, according to the latest Imobiliare.ro data.   According to the quoted source, investments in apartments can lose ground in front of some financial instruments. “Certain small investors who recently focused on buying real estate for later use in hotel regime now discover options by which they can increase profit while eliminating time and money resources involved in maintaining and managing them,” the study shows.   Thus, state bonds have become more attractive of late. The Treasury and Fidelis editions attracted record amounts of money this year. With advantageous annual interest rates of up to 7.95% and with a simplified subscription process, they can become a serious competitor for real estate investments.   According to the study, IRCC will drop in April, then will maintain that level until the end of the year.   “The drop of the key interest rate from 7% to 6.5%, in the summer of 2024 made the Romanians who were interested in applying for mortgages in 2025 enjoy a lower IRCC only at the beginning of 2025. We are talking about a drop from 5.99% to 5.66%, which means slightly higher amounts which can be obtained with the same incomes,”the document shows.   A new drop of IRCC to 5.55% is expected since the beginning of April, with the potential of stimulating increase for all segments of the residential market. The new value will maintain until the end of June. As long as BNR does not reduce the key interest rate, we will not see this year bigger IRCC variations, according to the source.