• Houses and villas market study in Cluj Napoca

Houses and villas market study in Cluj Napoca

The sale of houses and villas holds a special place on the real estate market from Romania.
Most of the Romanian people prefer to live in a house rather than in an apartment, as a house provides more silence, privacy and a large space inside and outside the building, as there usually is a yard of at least 40-50 square metres.
Even if everybody wants such a thing, not everyone affords it. The price of houses in Cluj-Napoca starts from around 90.000 Euro. At this price, the house is a classic construction, alone in the yard, in an area of houses, yet not residential, inhabitable, with classic finishing, which determines an investment of at least 5000 Euro, budget destined to the improvements. The same type of house can be bought in a residential area from Cluj (Andrei Muresanu) for 400.000 Euro.
A house in a new building, of the duplex type, costs around the minimum sum of 110.000 Euro, the sum depending mainly on the corresponding land and the location of the building. There are however some disadvantages.
These duplex buildings are usually situated in new districts, in the neighbourhood of the city, which makes harder the access to the centre as there are no means of transport at short intervals of time. The ideal would be that the owner possesses a car, which makes things easier and so the house becomes the perfect choice.

At a mean level of price, there are not too many differences between a classic and a new building.
What is interesting is the fact that there are no significant increases of price on this segment after Romania’s adherence to the European Union. There have been however some cases (isolated) when prices were raised with more than 20.000 Euro without a plausible reason.
Due to a solid financial power, there have been built many villas on Cluj, part of which are rated at over 1 million Euro. Although they have been put on sale, there are no potential clients because of the price, at such a sum the clients having the possibility to build themselves on their own wishes the ideal home.
2007 seems to be the year of the houses in Cluj. As a result of the interdiction imposed by law regarding the construction of blocks, builders focus slowly but surely towards the construction of houses of the duplex or triplex type. In 2006 several projects for ensembles of houses have started, inside Cluj but also in the neighbourhood of the city, in areas that will soon be part of the city.
Analysts believe that the price of houses/villas will gradually grow with a maximum of 10% (a less significant percentage as related to the span of time) during the next year, the main reason for this being the existence of a market more and more rich and varied.
There are currently offers for all the categories of clients. Thus appeared the residential projects, destined to the people with a high financial power (Romanian or foreign investors, managers, employees in the financial field sor in the domain of high-level technology). The price of such a house gets to approximately 250.000 Euro. Villas also benefit from a vast land correspondong to the building, and they are located in residential areas and provide luxury finishing.
For the category of the people with average income (but enough to buy such a building) there are duplex dwellings in good areas, but with less land, the houses being handed semifinished.
Compared to the classic buildings, the new ones have another advantage. Bought in the phase of project, the house can be paid in 3 portions, and the price on square metre is more advantageous than in the case of finished buildings.
Houses (old buildings) are mainly chosen by the clients who don’t hold a considerable budget, or by a category of people with a high financial potential, who are attracted especially by the architecture of the building or the land surrounding it.
Houses are generally bought for the family habitation, and not for the reason of a short term investment.
So, the Romanian people did not lose their interest for houses, regardless of the prices practised on the local market.