Tips about buying your future house: 1. The land – Location, utilities, access and many more

Investment in a new villa is more difficult than an apartment inside the city. It requires more personal involvement and the resolution of many problems which at first glance appear as "easy". After the "first wave" of investors in this segment (2000 – 2004) and the second one (2005 – 2008), during 2010 the market clearly heads to a new direction. People are more careful and "opportunities" are analyzed thoroughly by everyone. If you want to build your own house (some call it "villa" too), you will need to start by choosing the location and buying the land for it. And you need to take into consideration many important aspects, if you want to avoid bad surprises…

1. Location, location, location.
A property's location is always vital. Don't let anyone mislead you on this. If the location is not good, all the rest don't matter.

2. Romania is not USA or Germany…
I am tired to hear people comparing Romania with USA or Germany. We live in the Balkans and we still have problems which are already solved in other countries before 30 or 50 years ago. Infrastructure is poor, mentality is not ideal plus the city does not expand as fast as many "dreamers" would expect. So, when someone tries to sell to you something based on what happened abroad, be twice more suspicious.

3. Bucharest is a different market comparing to the other big cities
While elsewhere the city's limits are 4 – 8 km, in Bucharest they are more than 30. Thus if you don't live in the capital of Romania, don't read stories about what happens here, trying to apply it to every other Romanian city.

4. Extravillant lands are not always easy to become intravillant
It is not impossible, usually it happens. But be very careful when someone is selling to you a land which is still part of the "agricultural circuit" or extravillant. The procedure to transform it to intravillant will require you time and money. Sometimes it worth, due to the low price of acquiring, sometimes not.

(And don't forget that there are areas where local "clever" people will "volunteer" to help you with this procedure, if you "just cover some small expenses").

5. In Romania, a land "in the middle of nowhere" will remain "in the middle of nowhere" for more years than you expect.

The logical step for a city is to expand next to its actual borders. Or maybe to exceed a bit more. If you expect it to expand some 10 – 15 km and you invest in a property there, then you simply risk your money. In the good times, you will find some other "people who like adventure and adrenaline" to buy it from you. In the bad periods like now, you will simply forget your property for many years. (Few exceptions in this rule simply confirm the rule).

Important: Indeed, there are people who invested far away from a city and saw their money multiplied. But:

– They didn't invest in order to build their house at that moment.
– They sold at higher prices after several years or even decades.
– For every one of them who succeeded to resell and earn a lot, there are another 2 who invested and remain blocked after 15 – 40 years!

6. Utilities, utilities, utilities.z
Let us count together the areas around Bucharest where local authorities have succeeded to complete serious networks of utilities, electricity, water, sewerage, gas. We heard of hundreds of announced projects, out of which very few were completed. Doesn't this provide us a safe compass for the future? Pay something more and get connected today, whenever you have the chance.

7. Access to your plot.

– Is it via an asphalted road?
– Via a stone road?
– Maybe a mud road?
– Or is it via "guess where is the road"?

I would check to the last option only if the price would have been ridiculously low. I would pay a bit more for a mud road, more for a stone road and even more for an asphalted one, which usually is accompanied by more utilities too.

If you can not access your plot easily, then you simply bought something "for the future generations", for sure not for the near future.

8. Access to local, county of national arteries
The closer you are, the better it is for you and your property. Ofcourse if you tell me that you will buy a plot with opening to DN1 national road, this means that you will use it for other activities and not for living there. But noone ever lost being close or located at important points of reference.

9. Traffic to get there
There are properties close to county roads, but you need too much time to reach them. The internal traffic of the city, the bad condition of roads etc influence your ability to reach them on time. These factors should also influence your decision before you buy something over there, counting carefully the pluses and minuses of the location.

10. Next to where or what?
Is the property next to a forest? By a lake? Is it a lake or a swamp "baptized as lake" by some local "smechers"? When it is the time to choose, we definitely pay more for locations close to a better natural environment. Just make sure that this environment is real and not overestimated.

PS. I know, some of you will tell me that "if you have the connections and you know the right people, you can buy a property "in the middle of nowhere" and you can see it being transformed to a "hot shot". 20% of the times you are right. 80% of the times the ones who follow this practice succeed to get blocked themselves too.

Send me your questions at: info@more-group.eu

On Monday, May 24^th:

Tips about buying your future house:

2. The "map" of Bucharest: Where is good for what

Coming up:

–  Close to forest, lake or hill?
–  Can we consider a land located on a plain agricultural field as "a land in the center of nature"?
–  Major public infrastructure: An urban myth
–  "Land next to golf pitch or other facilities"… Yeah!
–  A land for house is also an investment, so treat it accordingly