Answering your questions

“The price for a new apartment in a residential project is almost as high as a new  house built  nearby Bucharest. What do you think that is more advantageous for an young person, to buy  an apartment in a residential center in Bucharest or  to build a house in one of the localities near Bucharest? What are the  areas that you suggest for a house nearby  Bucharest? What are the steps to be done before we buy a land, in order to do the best deal for us?”
Bogdan F. Bucharest
- Well Bogdan, I can not say that I  totally agree with you. And I will explain to you why:

• The prices in residential projects in the city of Bucharest are significantly higher than the prices of villas around the Romanian Capital.
• If you decide to build by yourself, the story is totally different, let us examine now the case that you will choose to buy a villa or an apartment in a project out of the city’s limits or to buy an apartment inside the city.
• Inside the city you have the advantage of easy access to almost everywhere. You are also closer to your job and you have a property that you can easily sell again at any moment.
• Of course you don’t have the peace of the villa, you have neighbors who sometimes can be impolite and if the block has more than 10 floors, you may feel that you change from an old “communistic” block, to a new block with many people living there again. Plus the prices are higher and the surfaces smaller.
• A villa or an apartment out of the city benefit of the quiet environment, the lower prices together with the bigger surfaces, the garden, the privacy (in villa) etc.
• From the other side, the transportation does not exist, so you need 1 car per person of the family. You also need patience so as to spend your hours in the traffic (from Pipera to the center in rush hour you need around 2 hours if you don’t know the small streets and you just follow the main boulevards. Also, in many cases the sewerage system is not installed out of the city, the same stands for the central heating that all the city has, but not the suburbs.
• The areas around Bucharest that I would choose are my personal taste. What you would keep in mind if you would decide to buy a house / apartment in the suburbs is to choose a clean area, that looks beautiful, with normal people living around you (it is not always obvious this last comment), with facilities installed and the best possible transportation available. For more, it is matter of personal taste regarding surfaces, areas etc.

“This year in Romania I heard that there are double elections. Is it going to affect our business?”
George N., Miami
- That’s an interesting question, George, and the answer is not really simple. Indeed this year we have elections for the municipalities (in June as I remember) and then in October there will be elections for the government. In terms of the country’s growth, I would not be afraid of this political period. Romania has proved in the last years that it can proceed even when the politicians are fighting really badly in between. I remind you that last year the country had faced a major political crisis, which even led to a referendum against the President, but this did not influence the real business at all.
On the other hand, Romania has a major advantage which helps the country to  move fast. This is the power that is given to the municipalities, so as to decide upon many important matters, with the most important of them the urbanistic cases. In Greece, for example, if you want to upgrade the coefficient of a terrain, you need special decision by the minister of Environment, Urbanism and Public Works (usually you will never get it, or you will wait for years). In Romania you need some months, as it is something solved in the level of the municipality, or the prefecture, if we don’t talk about the capital city of the area. Now, with the local elections, there is a serious possibility that the whole system will delay, with the approvals for new projects to be transferred for the next months, even the next year in some very difficult cases.
I would like to guarantee you for something, though. Romania is a VERY stable country and European Union overviews this stability in daily basis. This is why you can only worry for delays, but not for any serious turn arounds and surprises in your investment plans.
“What about corruption in Romania? In order to do business is it absolutely necessary to have the “right connections?”
Hans V.C., Amsterdam
– Could you please inform me about a country that does not have problems with bureaucracy and corruption? More or less, the problem exists everywhere and in former communistic countries it is even more visible. Romania is quite ok, I would say. The problems exist, but nothing is tragic, the system functions, things are moving and very rarely we find a case which is really unsolvable.
I would say that we suffer more from some crooks, who move around in the market, search for stupid foreign investors and they try to sell to them properties or “properties” with extremely serious problems. Then the investors mess with the authorities which simply do their work and follow the law. After all, the investors get disappointed blaming the system for their bad choice (which was probably combined with a choice of a bad paid lawyer).
Hans, I plan to visit your city this Spring and I would be more than happy to explain to you all these from close too.
“I was offered a nice plot in the Afumati area, in the northeastern part of Bucharest. It has opening directly to the DN2 (National Road 2). The price is 230 euros / sq.m., should I  proceed with it?”
Talal O., UAE
- It depends, how did you earn the money that you want to invest in that plot? Did you work for it? Was it donated to you? The price you describe to me is 100% more expensive than a price that could be described as expensive in the area. Ofcourse if you check the area today, these are the prices you will find… 180 – 250 euros / sq.m. So what? If some greedy owners like speculating on our back, do we have to follow them? Do you know anyone who has actually paid this price?
Let us be serious. In Voluntary and Afumati the prices have risen to…. the sky! You will pay 230 euros / sq.m. so as to purchase a plot useful just for industrial purposes, or commercial, if you want to build there a showroom. The ones who claim that we will develop residential projects there, should be asked to let us know who will go to live there and what price is he going to pay for the apartment?
So, if you need to have a showroom for your business, you could go for it, even if you will know that you are a victim of aggressive speculation (sometimes the right property for a business simply does not have a price). If you search for an investment with speculative future, I suggest to you to avoid the above mentioned one, because I find it very difficult to believe that the prices will keep rising from 230… to where? To 500? Why?

“What is your opinion about Arad? Should I invest there? Do you have any properties to propose to me?”
Emilio P., Verona

– You have my bless… (kidding). Yes, Arad is a very interesting city, if ofcourse you know why you want to be there, what is your strategy etc, so with one phrase “yes, if you follow the rules of investment”. I should add that Arad is not the right place for some market sectors, due to the major investments which are planned there, for… 4 Malls, logistic parks etc.
For sure I have properties in Arad, this is my business… But I am not going to present to you here, if

For sure I have properties in Arad, this is my business… But I am not going to present to you here, if you want this, you can contact my company (info@more-group.eu