Average house prices were 31.5% lower in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to the same quarter of 2007, despite the recovery in recent years, according to an analysis by local real estate portal Imobiliare.ro.

The year-on-year price growth rate slowed down in the last quarter of last year, to 9.1%, from 12.4% in 2016. When compared to the previous quarter, the average house prices went up by 1.9% in the fourth quarter of 2017.

However, the price evolutions were uneven in Bucharest and the rest of the country and on various market segments. Thus, while the price of apartments in Bucharest went up by 0.6% in the last quarter of 2017, in the rest of the country the prices increased by 3.3%. The prices for stand-alone houses and villas declined by 2.2% in Bucharest in the same period while increasing by 8.5% in the rest of the country.

Of the five biggest residential markets outside Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca continued to record the highest price increase in the last quarter of last year, of 3.7%. The city in Transylvania also has the highest asking price per sqm, of EUR 1,450, even higher than in Bucharest, where the average asking price for apartments was EUR 1,250 per sqm.

editor@romania-insider.com