Housing in Bucharest increasingly unaffordable as prices for new apartments jump 25% in a year

Apartments and houses in Bucharest are unaffordable for more and more people, as housing prices have continued to rise over the past year despite a lower number of transactions, according to the Imobiliare.ro Index, which has monitored the evolution of the residential market in the main urban centers for over 15 years.

Residents of Bucharest felt the price increases the most over the past year. Postponing the purchase decision by one year became equivalent to a 26% increase in the average asking price for new apartments (EUR 2,632 per square meter) and 12% for those in old apartment buildings (EUR 2,232). To all this are added the recent fluctuations in the leu/euro exchange rate, which have increased home prices by tens of thousands of lei from one week to the next, according to real estate specialists.