Has the pandemic changed the Romanians' vision regarding the type of housing?

According to Eurostat, over 95% of Romanians have houses in their name. This percentage makes us the country with the most owners in the whole of Europe.

The pandemic context has redefined certain aspects of housing, especially the need to optimize the space and increase the degree of comfort. The newly emerging need to have a space dedicated to working from home has led Romanians to consider purchasing an individual house-type dwelling with land. During the pandemic, in the real estate market, the demand was mainly oriented towards new buildings and, in particular, for individual houses with gardens and the existence of facilities nearby, aspects that have become essential.

The pandemic has changed the vision of many Romanians when it comes to housing, the demand being influenced more by necessity than by desire. People felt the need for larger spaces in which to spend time with their family. From a small apartment-type dwelling in the block, people felt the need to switch to an apartment with a garden, to a duplex or to an individual house, depending on the purchasing power of each one.

As in Bucharest the offer of houses is limited, many of the buyers have reoriented to the neighboring localities of the capital, and the number of transactions concluded for properties in these areas, especially in the north of Bucharest, have increased starting with 2020.

Out of the total transactions with houses registered in the period 2020-2022, 2021 amounted to 41%, compared to 2020, with 30% of the total transactions. In 2022, out of the total transactions registered at the level of Ilfov County and Bucharest, 86.4% were made with houses located in the neighboring areas of Bucharest and only 13.6% of the transactions with houses were made in Bucharest.

Due to the increase in time spent working from home, the distance between the home and the means of public transport did not matter so much, the emphasis being on green and fresh air areas.

Currently, the real estate market is becoming less and less accessible to the population, also taking into account the uncertain economic context, through the increase in interest rates and inflation. All this can hinder the desire of Romanians to buy a home, but nevertheless the trend is a rising one, according to studies - even if incomes have decreased, Romanians still want to buy a home.