More than 4.5 million homes have come out of the guarantee period of their earthquake-resistant structure, in Romania, so that there is a need to renew the housing stock with almost 200,000 units, annually, either new units or a rehabilitation of those built before the 1977 earthquake, shows an analysis carried out by the representatives of an online real estate sales platform, Agerpres informs.

According to Imobiliare.NET, the legislation in force shows that the warranty period of the earthquake-resistant structure is 50 years from the date of commissioning.

„Imobiliare.NET calculations show that, throughout the country, more than 4.5 million homes have come out of the warranty period of their earthquake-resistant structure, which, according to the legislation in force, is 50 years after being put into use. Thus, our country needs a renewal of the housing stock with almost 200,000 units annually, either new units or a consolidation of those built before the earthquake of 1977. However, Romania does not manage to keep up with the need to refresh the real estate stock. In 2022, for example, five times less new building permits (43,990) were issued than the annual requirement (200,000) to eliminate the problem of buildings out of the safety guarantee of their earthquake-resistant structure,” notes the expert analysis.

In the same context, the data of the National Institute of Statistics (INS) showed that, at the end of 2021, there were 9.587 million housing units in Romania, to which are added the building permits issued throughout 2022, for 43,990 new units, decreasing by 14.9pct compared to the previous year.

According to real estate consultants, the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria will have a negative impact on the prices of old buildings in Romania, especially those in Bucharest, and the effects are beginning to be felt. Thus, the difference in sales prices for houses in Bucharest, built before 1977 and those built after 2010, is almost 20pct and continues to grow.

Regarding the apartments in Bucharest, from the detailed statistics of the immobiliare.NET platform, it is easy to see large price differences in all categories – studios, apartments with two, three or four rooms.

The Imobiliare.NET analysis considers data from more than 3,700 sales ads, from the first two months of this year, for real estate in the Capital built before the 1977 earthquake, these being compared with similar ads for new buildings, delivered after 2010.

Imobiliare.NET is a portal with real estate ads launched 13 years ago.

Agerpres