Residential deliveries in the Bucharest-Ilfov region were down 23% in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period of last year, according to a report by SVN Romania. The agency estimated last spring that this year could bring the lowest number of new homes delivered in the past five years.
The situation can also be explained by the constant decrease in the number of building permits in recent years.
In the first nine months of this year, 272 building permits for residential buildings were issued in Bucharest, down 4.2% compared to the same period last year. In the first nine months of 2022, 366 permits were issued, while in the first three quarters of 2021, 496 building permits were issued.
Thus, the current number of permits is down 45% compared to 2021.
"The current situation will continue in the coming years, which will translate into higher prices and reduced affordability. Additionally, just as importantly, there are investments of hundreds of millions of euros, even billions of euros, that Bucharest is losing due to the current urban planning blockage. And we are not just talking about residential projects that a developer is not building but also about office buildings, for example, which can lead to higher costs for companies and more difficult team expansions," said Andrei Sârbu, CEO of SVN Romania.
In the first ten months of 2024, almost 41,400 houses and apartments were sold in Bucharest, an increase of 11.3% compared to the same period in 2023, according to data from the National Agency for Cadastre and Real Estate Advertising. At the same time, the number of transactions concluded in the Bucharest-Ilfov region was 14.3% higher in the mentioned period.
