Isarescu: We don't have a generalised real estate bubble

The Governor of the NBR (National Bank of Romania), Mugur Isarescu, believes there is no bubble on the Romanian real estate market, given that there are major price discrepancies among various regions in Romania. “I don’t think we can talk about a widespread speculative bubble in Romania. The market is highly segmented, with prices varying greatly from region to the next,” added Isarescu. However, the Governor pointed out that there was no reliable source of information that provides full data on real estate prices. In fact, the NBR has been in talks with the Union of Notaries Public for a long time now, with a view to setting up an index on the trend of prices on the real estate market. Although the collaborative project has been in existence for some time, a deadline for the index has yet to be set. NBR data indicates a large gap between the demand for real estate credits in Bucharest and in the provinces, both in terms of the number of credits and in terms of the average value of a credit. While Bucharest saw 12,000 real estate credits granted, with an average value of just over 70,000 euros, in other counties the average value ranges from 25,000 to 45,000 euros.