The National Housing Agency (ANL) wants to develop residential compounds with private funding, and rent the apartments for a third of the average wage in Romania, which would be around EUR 120 a month.

The government approved yesterday (April 18 ) the program “Housing for rent by attracting private capital”, with ANL pledging to gather more investors to finance the design, construction and operation of housing.

ANL representatives said that this program will develop big projects with at least 200 houses that will be rented for over 20 years.

In exchange for investments, the private investors will get 30 percent of the rent and other periodic payments, while the state will provide the land and support the financing of economic, technical and legal projects.

To qualify to rent an ANL apartment, Romanians must not own other houses, not be a beneficiary of another state-owned rental in the same city. Applicants have to have been employed for at least a year and with an average income per family member at least 50 percent of the gross average wage, but not greater than the average wage.

ANL, set up in 1998, has so far built over 33,000 apartments destined for rental by Romanians aged 18 to 35 who cannot afford to buy or rent on the free market.

Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com