Economist says flats become by six per cent more accessible in Moldova in 2019 against previous year
17:17 | 11.09.2019 Category: Economic
Chisinau, 11 September /MOLDPRES/ - Flats have become by six per cent more accessible in 2019 against 2018, even if we witness the first increase in prices after 11 years of decrease in prices, an expert in economic policies of the Viitorul Institute, Veaceslav Ionita, has said.
Thus, 8.8 average annual salaries were necessary in the second quarter of 2019 to buy an apartment with an area of 70 square metres in the Chisinau municipality, against 9.4 average annual salaries in 2018.
According to the expert, the enhancement of the flats’ accessibility is due exclusively to the increase in the average annual salary, recalculated in euros. In the first half 2019, the average annual salary increased by 336 euros against 2018 and reached 4,232 euros yearly.
At the same time, the financial effort for purchasing a flat in Chisinau, in the last three years, has been quickly getting close to the European average, which represents 6.9 average annual salaries for an apartment of 70 square metres.
The number of transactions of sale and purchasing of flats increased to 11,500 in the first half of this year, according to data by the Public Services Agency. In the annual value, the transactions might exceed 22,000, above the level of 2018, when 20,400 flats sold were registered; this is a record for Moldova, given that the number is by 5,000 higher against the last five years.
In the first seven months of 2019, commercial banks provided residents with credits for real estate worth 1.8 billion lei – a value comparable with the loans borrowed by private people throughout 2018, according to data by the National Bank of Moldova. At the same time, the average nominal gross monthly salary reached 7,302.6 lei in the second quarter of 2019, recording a 14.6-per cent increase against the similar period of the previous year.
Transactions on the real estate market are on the rise, despite an insignificant increase in the price of dwellings in Chisinau, where about 70 per cent of all sales of apartments were registered in the first half of this year. Data by the LARA real estate exchange shows a four-euro (0.7 per cent) increase in prices for flats, up to 533 euros for one square metre in July 2019 against the month before.
