Bucharest is the most expensive market in Europe based on the report of revenues and the cost of housing, according to a study by Polish company Home Broker. Sofia and Warsaw follow in the top. The average annual salary in Romania, Bulgaria and Poland cover the purchase of only 1-2 square meters of housing in a downtown area.

In 2008, the average yearly salary in Romania could have financed the purchase of only 1.4 sqm of a 120 sqm home downtown Bucharest, which was EUR 3,484 per sqm. The average annual salary in Bulgaria could have financed the purchase of 1.7 sqm, at a price of EUR 1,759 per sqm.

Things are a lot better in cities like Brussels, Berlin and Vienna, where the average annual salary covers the purchase of over 10 sqm of downtown housing.

Housing prices in Bucharest came down compared to the 2008 level – in some cases by as much as 50 percent, especially on the old housing in the Bucharest blocks built in the communist era.