Romanian Property News

We mentioned a large number of developments for the luxury market segment, some of them both by Romanian and Western European standards. It is time now to have a look away from the crowded Bucharest and focus on the cultural capital of Europe in 2007 – Sibiu.

The city of Sibiu is no stranger to the successive price increases over the past few years, and its election as the cultural capital of Europe meant two things: city-wide redevelopment and refurbishment, as well as sky-rocketing property prices. Further, Sibiu is currently the second financial centre of Romania after Bucharest, as it hosts the Sibiu Monetary Financial and Commodities Exchange, being the only location in Romania for trading futures and options contracts.

Due to the historical value of the city buildings, as well as the medieval look of its houses, there is very little room or planning permission for large developments within the city limits. This is why property prices are typically high within Sibiu city limits and developers looked at areas nearby Sibiu for large plots of land to set larger projects. One of these projects is the Ana complex, situated less than three miles from Sibiu, nearby the village of Sura Mare, covering a surface of over 40000sqm and including a total of 64 villas, with individual plots measuring 400-600sqm. You can see above a computer generated image of the entire complex.

The moto of the real estate agent managing the Ana complex, Residence Investments, is quite suggestive – “we’re offering you a house for the price of a flat”. And that is actually the case. The computer graphical representation of villa you see on the right (named “Luana”) is for sale for less than €100,000 – quite a bargain for a new 200sqm three-bedroom villa with a garage. The only strange gimmick is that, for whatever reason, the land has to be bought separately, at €60/sqm, adding another €20,000 to the final price. Coming back to the image, Luana is only one of the seven types of developments within the project, the cheapest ones being semi-detached two-bedroom houses priced at just under €60,000 – Ioana duplex. The most expensive villa is not far off though; the Cristina villas are generous four-bedroom, three-bathroom houses, with a total size of almost 300sqm, all this for €158,000 (plus, again, the price of land).

What is the current status? The development is, as we speak, available and on the market. The picture below was taken in Autumn 2006, showing that the constructions are nearly ready (you can see one of the Luana houses on the front right).