Timisoara and Constanta compete with Bucharest's real estate market

Whoever wants to buy a studio in Bucharest has to have at least 14,000-18,000 euros available, which money would buy a three-room flat in a central location ten years ago.
Similarly expensive is the admission ticket onto the market of studios in the big cities like Constanta, Cluj Napoca, Timisoara and Iasi, says real estate agencies.
The most expensive studios, worth more than 120,000 euros in the northern area of Bucharest, equal two luxury studios or a four-room flat in Timisoara and Constanta. The same money buys four four-room flats in Ferentari, rated as the location of the cheapest homes on the real estate market.
“The price per square metre in central and northern Bucharest may go up as much as 2,500 euros, which puts the value of a 50 square metre studio at 120,000 euros,” says Iulian Manailescu, representative of Eimobiliare company.
The cheapest home sold on the Bucharest market this year was a studio in Ferentari, at a price of 6,000 euros. Also this year a 270-300 square metre four-room flat with a terrace in the Dorobanti area sold for 100 times more, 600,000 euros, according to the data supplied by the real estate agencies.
Penthouses remain the most expensive homes on the luxury market of the capital city, where deals can reach as high as 2,000,000 euros.
The “stars” of the real estate market, however, are the two-room flats, with the respective transactions accounting for 40-50% of the total number of sales of homes brokered by real estate agencies.
A sum of 15,000 to 16,000 euros pays for access to the cheapest studios in Bucharest, with a built surface area of 16 to 22 square metres in the outskirts of Bucharest, in neighbourhoods like Pantelimon or Berceni.
“We sold a second class studio in Pantelimon this spring, which had a 22 square metre area, without a balcony or access to the gas supply network for 16,000 euros,” says Adriana Toba, the manager of the real estate agency Stand by Serv.
Prices of two-room flats in Bucharest start from 25,000 euros in the Rahova area and may go to as much as 180,000 euros in the northern area.
On the segment of the three-room flats, prices range from 40,000 euros to 200,000 euros, while four-room flats sell for 50,000 to 600,000 euros.
Studios in Cluj sell for 14,000 to 45,000 euros, depending on location, surface area, floor, equipment and age of the building. Two-room flats in the same city cost 40,000 to 93,000 euros, three-room flats sell for 54,000 to 135,000 euros, Edil real estate agency representatives say. Four-room flats can be bought for 100,000 to 140,000 euros in the prime central area.
In Western Romania, namely in Timisoara, the rooms in the former student hostels close to the student compound sell for 15,000-16,000 euros, mainly at this time of the year. Two-room flat prices range between 32,000 and 90,000 euros. The most expensive three-room flats are located by the Bega River and can be purchased for 150,000 euros, while prices for four-room flats can exceed 160,000 euros.
Prices in Iasi start from 15,000 euros for studios and reach as high as 140,000 euros for four-room flats.