Expert says Chisinau engine of growth of real estate market in Moldova

Chisinau, 16 May /MOLDPRES/ - The Chisinau city is the engine of growth of the real estate market from Moldova, given that the market of flats is concentrated in the capital at the level of 75 per cent, an economist of the Viitorul institute, Veaceslav Ionita, has said at a programme titled, Fifteen minutes of economic realism.  

The expert said that, after a continuous downfall following the 2008 crisis, the real estate market was on the rise and the tendency would be maintained in continuation. In 2018, 20,400 sold apartments were registered, which is a record for Moldova, given that their number is by 5,000 higher against the last five years. Already in the first quarter of 2019, 21,000 sold flats were recorded. 

Ionita also said that a new phenomenon which had not existed in Moldova was the sale of private houses. In the first quarter of 2019, 6,500 houses were sold, against 7,000-8,000 houses during one year on the previous period. In a half of all districts, the number of private houses sold in the first quarter of 2019 was higher than in all the 2018 year and in several districts the sales where seven-fold larger than in the last years.  

The phenomenon is explained by the fact that “some those who sell their houses come to Chisinau, the others are Moldovans who settled abroad and ruled to sell their houses and the third explanation is that some of those who borrowed real estate loans decided to solve the problem of their dwelling outside of Chisinau.”   

”The money which boosted transactions on the real estate market comes from the banking system. In the first quarter of 2019, the credits from the constructions industry amounted to 5.2 billion lei – a 500-million-lei growth in a single quarter alone. Private persons have the biggest share in all the loans lent,” the economist noted.

Veaceslav Ionita also said that “the fostering of the real estate loans is triggered by the increase in residents’ revenues. In the first quarter of 2019, the annual average salary exceeded the equivalent of 4,040 euros. The level of 3,000 euros was exceeded in the second quarter of 2017. The growth took place amid the appreciation of the national currency and nominal increase of the salary in Moldovan lei.” 

At the same time, after the margin which creditors can apply for the loans guaranteed by state had been reduced from 3 to 2 per cent in the First Home programme and other amendments were made, the demand for the real estate credits will grow. In late last April, the Finance Ministry informed that, till that time, 2,100 young people and young families had applied to the First Home governmental programme, who received credits worth over one billion lei for purchasing dwellings.