Almost 11,500 new homes will be completed this year in Bucharest, an increase of 14% from 2020, JLL data show.
Developers who have not postponed their plans due to the pandemic will deliver 11,420 new homes on the Bucharest market. Even in pandemic times, the development activity, but also the trading activity in 2020 registered an advance compared to the previous year. In terms of deliveries, overall, the year 2020 performed very well given the state of insecurity caused by the pandemic, especially in the second quarter.
Thus, in 2020, approximately 10,000 new units were delivered in Bucharest and 3,600 units in Ilfov County. Of these, 3,900 new homes were built in Bucharest and 1,060 in Ilfov County in the 4th quarter.
"For 2021 we would have expected a moderate increase in prices, but the postponement of the measure to increase the maximum price level for which 5% VAT is applied, made us become more reserved in terms of forecasts. Therefore, we expect prices to remain stable or even increase slightly in 2021, following the trend of 2020 ", says Andreea Hamza, senior director of the Living Department of JLL Romania.
There are projects that should have been delivered in 2020, but were postponed for the first half of this year or even for 2022, given that restrictions imposed have led to a slowdown in most construction sites.
However, there were no major projects for which the developers had completely canceled the investment plans, so in the second half of the year, there was an increase in construction activity. New phases of projects were launched, amid surprisingly good sales performance. It also motivated developers to be actively involved in securing new land for future projects.
