Flats' prices slightly drops in Moldovan capital, after four months of stagnation

Chisinau, 9 December /MOLDPRES/ - The dwellings on the secondary market have cheapened by 1 per cent and got to a price of 528 euros for one square metre in last November, after the prices had maintained at 533 euros for one square metre four months in a row. Data by the LARA Real Estate Exchange shows that, although the price has decreased insignificantly, it is above the level recorded in early 2019 – 520 euros.      

The most expensive apartments continue to be in the Centru district of Chisinau, which are sold at a price by 18-20 per cent higher against the average market price, and the cheapest flats are in the Buiucani district of Moldova’s capital. The most expensive flats, in terms of the price for one square metre, are the one-chamber flats from the Centru district, while the four-chamber apartments are sold, on average, for 488 euro per one square metre.   

Real estate brokers find out a high pace of development of the real estate market in 2019, both in terms of the number of sales, and of the dwellings made available for living. Thus, data by the Public Services Agency shows that, in the first nine months of 2019, 19,822 transactions on the sale and purchasing of flats were registered in the real estate cadastre – a figure comparable to the one recorded throughout 2018, of 20,407 transactions and above the level of 2018, when 18,422 apartments were sold and bought.        

According to the Public Services Agency, most transactions in 2019 were registered in the Chisinau city, 13,385, respectively. On the other hand, an opposite tendency is noticed on the segment of private homes; most transactions are made in other regions but Chisinau. Thus, in the third quarter, 462 private homes were sold and purchased in Chisinau, out of the overall number of 2,453 private houses.  

The First Home governmental programme gave an impetus to the development of the real estate market. A number of 3,560 people have bought a dwelling through the First Home programme since the latter’s launch in March 2018. Data by the Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises Sector Development shows that total sum of loans provided by banks for buying those over 3,500 dwellings amount to 1.78 billion lei and the sum of active guarantees exceeded 891 million lei.  

The state budget law for 2020 sees allocations worth 70 million lei for the implementation of the First Home state programme, of which 50 million lei for the honouring of the state guarantees within the programme.  

According to the National Statistics Bureau, 6,593 dwellings (apartments and private homes) with an overall area of 499,800 squares metres were made available for living in January-September 2019; this is by 58.7 more against the same period of 2018.