Bucharest is among the major European cities with the lowest housing prices and the highest affordability ratios, according to data from real estate consultancy company Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

Based on public data regarding the average residential prices in Europe, the affordability level in Bucharest is among the highest both nationally and across the continent, with only 96.2 average monthly net salaries required to purchase a 70 sqm apartment. Higher levels of affordability are only recorded in Brussels and Sofia, with 84.2 and 94.3 average net salaries, respectively, the real estate company said.

On the other hand, London, Munich, Paris, or Zurich have some of the highest average asking prices. They can exceed EUR 10,000 (Paris) or EUR 16,000 (Zurich) per sqm, generally requiring more than 200 average monthly net salaries from those locations to purchase a 70 sqm apartment, a level more than double compared with Bucharest.

According to the same source, the Romanian capital also offers favorable residential prices at the CEE level. Lower affordability levels are registered in Prague (the average asking prices exceed EUR 4,700/ sqm and 196.7 average net salaries are needed), Bratislava (171.5 salaries), Warsaw (165.3), Belgrade (161), Cluj-Napoca ((158.2), and Budapest (150).

“The residential property prices in Romania have seen significant upward movements in 2023 in cities such as Cluj-Napoca, Brașov, Oradea, Iași, or Craiova, with double-digit increases in most of the mentioned locations. Bucharest has somewhat diverged in the last 12 - 24 months, a period during which the average growth of the asking prices was clearly below the inflation rate and the construction costs’ increases. Moreover, we have witnessed a clear residential market rebound in H2 2023 and in the first months of 2024, after a moment when the number of transactions with residential units had significantly decreased during H1 2023 due to the high housing loans’ interest rates,” said Vlad Săftoiu, Head of Research at Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

The average asking price for a listed apartment in Bucharest was EUR 1,663/sqm in February, according to Imobiliare.ro, Romania’s largest residential portal. The figure corresponds to a 6.6% increase compared with February 2023 and a 7.5% increase vs the same month in 2022, representing some of the lowest upward price movements during the analyzed periods in the country, Cushman & Wakefield Echinox said. 

Bucharest ranks third in terms of the highest average residential prices in Romania after Cluj-Napoca (EUR 2,666/sqm, +10.4% vs February 2023) and Brașov (EUR 1,815/sqm, +14.9% vs February 2023).

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

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