Romania's land market is undergoing a significant transformation, with plots carrying clear zoning status, approved Zonal Urban Plans and the ability to enter development rapidly becoming the most sought-after assets, according to Crosspoint Real Estate, the International Associate of Savills in Romania. The value gap between fully entitled land and plots lacking planning documentation is continuing to widen.
"In recent years, land value was assessed almost exclusively through the lens of planning indicators and real estate development potential. Today, the question is no longer how much value we may unlock in the future, but how much certainty we have today and how quickly we can start. Certainty and speed have become pricing factors," said Ionuț Stan, Partner and Head of Land Development at Crosspoint Real Estate.
Crosspoint's analysis of the first half of 2026 shows the market increasingly operating at two speeds. Plots with clear documentation that enable rapid development are transacting efficiently, while land parcels acquired in previous years based on future urbanisation scenarios are becoming progressively harder to monetise. In some cases, transactions are now conditioned upon obtaining a building permit before final agreements are signed. "The market was already paying a 20–30% premium for development-ready land and that gap will continue to expand. The unit of measurement is changing. We're no longer negotiating euros per square meter of land, but euros per buildable square meter," Stan added.
At the same time, Crosspoint is observing an accelerating diversification of buyer profiles. Alongside residential developers, demand from energy, digital infrastructure and data centre operators is growing steadily. "This year we have seen the emergence of new buyer profiles, including investors in energy and digital infrastructure who evaluate properties through completely different criteria. For an energy storage project or a data center, access to electrical capacity can be more important than traditional planning indicators," said Stan. Areas such as southern Bucharest and regional hubs including Jucu, Brașov, Oradea and Timișoara are attracting investor attention thanks to their infrastructure connectivity and available energy capacity.
Crosspoint's own activity in 2026 reflects this shift. The company has brokered a residential development site in Bucharest valued at more than €10 million and a retail land transaction in Craiova exceeding €9 million, while also managing mandates to identify a location for a 250 MW data centre and to market a 500 MW Battery Energy Storage System project. "We are witnessing a paradigm shift. If, in the past, value was generated primarily through planning parameters, in the future an increasing number of land assets will also be assessed through the energy capacity they can provide. Certain segments of the market are beginning to move from CUT to MW," concluded Stan.
