The sale of luxury housing to soar in the past five years

2016-10-21 21:33:43 - From the Print Edition

Luxury housing sales have soared in the last five years and have come to represent five per cent of the total housing market, according to Regatta Real Estate, the largest real estate consultancy company with Romanian capital. According to the source, Romanians with high incomes and expatriates leading multinational companies are the main buyers. In addition, about 30 per cent of properties available for sale in the luxury segment are listed at prices of over one million Euro, according to Regatta Real Estate data. The latest trend observed in this segment is the desire of buyers to purchase properties already refurbished by architects and designers, to be able to move into their new home quickly. Almost a quarter of those interested in buying luxury properties are concerned, mainly, to invest in them in order to increase their value and resell them later at a significantly higher price. "There are investors who buy a house, let's say, with 600,000 Euro, they invest another 500,000 Euro in it and manage to sell the house for almost two million Euro," said Eduard Uzunov, president of Regatta Real Estate. He also added that, at least in terms of luxury properties, prices remain significantly lower than in 2008. Thus, in Bucharest's Primaverii area, land prices vary between 2,000 and 4,000 Euro/sqm, while the apartments are sold at prices ranging between 1,500 and 5,000 Euro/sqm." Regatta Real Estate posted last year a turnover of one million Euro, and this year the company expects an increase of 50 per cent, to 1.5 million.