Although the National Bank of Romania (BNR) decided last week to relax the credit standards, real estate advisors say this was a necessary measure, yet not sufficient to steady residential market. In this segment, things will continue to move slowly, while the consumer confidence will be harder to regain.

“Relaxation of the mortgage loan rules will surely reinvigorate the residential market, but both buyers and lenders will focus more on the quality of products and reliability of the developers.

The sales’ squeeze in October 2008 has dramatically dented the poorly planned and marketed projects”, Eduard Uzunov, chairman of Regatta told Wall-Street. He added that only large developers with marketable projects would be able to sustain a competitive advantage in the coming period.

Three months ago, Uzunov said the lenders would need to adapt to market conditions so that persons who need a housing unit to be creditworthy, as the population medium wage is increasing and is directly influencing the demand for real estate products.

Calin Bucur, consultant at Residential Department at Colliers International and the head of the team that set up BREI indice (Bucharest Real Estate Index), said BNR’s decision was an important step in the path to unlocking the residential market, yet not enough if we were to consider the gloomy forecasts for the next two-three months.

“The confidence in the market of end-users must be restored, and they should use the utmost of the new credit rules, and the banks should be stabilized. However, things don’t happen over the night”, Calin Bucur added.

On the other hand, representatives of Credit Team loan brokerage firm highlight the importance of eliminating the stress test, which was designed to determine a certain credit rating afferent to scoring used by lenders when they review the loan applications. The credi