Only 30-40 of the 280 applications sent for approval to the National SME Credit Guarantee Fund (FNGCIMM) are for the acquisition of new homes, so the effect of the programme on the constructions market will be limited, leaving developers with unsold apartments.

So far, around 280 applications for mortgage loans, with a cumulated value of 11 million euros, have been sent to the Guarantee Fund, 240 of which have already been approved, while a maximum of 40 are still being analysed – applications sent by banks since the end of last week.

"Around 10-15% of all applications are for homes in new buildings. So far, all applications we have received for analysis have been for homes that are not already mortgaged," Irina Constantinescu, strategy and risk manager of the Fund, told ZF. Constantinescu says the Fund currently needs three days at most to analyse a credit application.

A 44,000-euro studio in a block of apartments in Giulesti and a two-room new apartment in Baneasa, sold for 108,000 euros are just two of the transactions sealed over the last few days, as part of the state-guaranteed "First home" programme.

The number of new homes sold through the "First home" is low, so real estate developers are more likely to receive indirect help from the programme – as it might stop the decline in prices.

A survey of offers from real estate developers shows that prices of the cheapest homes start from 60,000 euros or even less only in a few of the new residential complexes. In buildings such as Cosmopolis in Stefanesti, Metropolis (Bucurestii Noi), Ten Blocks (Militari), Residenz (Chitila) and Asmita Gardens (Splaiul Unirii), the offer does not include apartments cheaper than 75,000 euros.

Under the circumstances, buyers have mainly opted for homes in old blocks of apartments. Coldwell Banker, one of the main realtors on the Romanian market, br