The only state agencies handling housing with public funds is the National Housing Agency (ANL). It delivers an average 350 units per month, while the overall number of houses built in Romania each month is some 3,500, of which more than half are located in rural areas. With a new program aimed at ending the deadlock on the real estate market, the state increases exposure in the field, by providing loan guarantee for at least 16,000 mortgages worth up to €60,000.
Through the “First Home” program, part of the Government’s anti-crisis program, people who have never owned a home can buy one with loans with lower down payment (5 percent, compared to 15-25 percent otherwise) and better interest rates. Thus, the state becomes one of the top players on the real estate market, as developers have difficulties in financing or selling their projects. During 2001-2008, ANL built some 22,500 apartments for youth and 2,200 homes to be sold through mortgages.
Meanwhile, the developer with the largest portfolio nationwide, Impact, finalized some 2,000 units in the past 19 years. “We are working at 3,222 homes this year, of which we are to deliver 1,437 at the end of July. The rate is some 350 units per month,” ANL General Director, Pavel Belinski, told Business Standard.
According to INS data, 10.595 units were finalized in the first quarter of 2009 nationwide, 306 units less than in the first three months of 2008. This is the first quarter to register a decline in the past five years. Developers announced some 9,000 units are to be delivered this year in Bucharest, as only 15 of the 25 residential projects launched in 2008 are to be finalized.
