People interested in buying prime real estate properties in Romania pay the lowest taxes in the European Union, of only 0.15% of the property value, according to a study by international financial consultancy group UHY.

By contrast, major European economies including France, Germany, and Spain levy some of the highest property purchase taxes in the world.

In Romania, the average tax that a buyer needs to pay when purchasing a USD 1 million property is USD 1,500. Ireland is next, with an average tax of USD 10,000, followed by Italy, with over USD 16,700.

In the Netherlands and Poland, the tax on a similar purchase is about USD 20,000, and in Germany and Croatia it goes up to USD 50,000. In France, such a purchase is taxed with some USD 50,900 and in Spain the tax goes up to USD 80,000.

Belgium has the highest tax rate for prime real estate purchases in the EU, some 11.3% of the property value. This means that the buyer of a USD 1 million property in Belgium will pay USD 113,000 worth of taxes, 75 times more than in Romania.

However, the study doesn’t include all EU states. Some of Romania’s neighboring countries, such as Bulgaria, Hungary, and Czech Republic are missing.

The full study can be found here.

editor@romania-insider.com