Land prices have fallen less over the last two years in city centres, where the supply is quite limited, and more on the outskirts of cities and in rural areas, where investors used to acquire huge plots in the 2006-2008 period, relying on a fast horizontal expansion of cities.
"The crisis has shown that Bucharest's urban development will not be as fast as was expected during the years when plots on the city's outskirts were selling like hotcakes. Now plots have returned to their normal use - as farming land," said Filip Stoica, chairman of the National Association of Evaluators in Romania (ANEVAR).
Businessman Ioan Niculae, owner of the Interagro group with 500 million euros in the agriculture sector, said recently he had come to buy a hectare of farming land for 2,300 RON (560 euros), which means a square metre of farming land costs five cents in South Romania.
Close to Bucharest, one of the few recent transactions that could be considered as a reference price was sealed at 9 euros/square metre, 78% less than an evaluation made midway through 2008.
Land prices have fallen less over the last two years in city centres, where the supply is quite limited, and more on the outskirts of cities and in rural areas, where investors used to acquire huge plots in the 2006-2008 period, relying on a fast horizontal expansion of cities.
"The crisis has shown that Bucharest's urban development will not be as fast as was expected during the years when plots on the city's outskirts were selling like hotcakes. Now plots have returned to their normal use - as farming land," said Filip Stoica, chairman of the National Association of Evaluators in Romania (ANEVAR).
Businessman Ioan Niculae, owner of the Interagro group with 500 million euros in the agriculture sector, said recently he had come to buy a hectare of farming land for 2,300 RON (560
