Romanian Property News

Do you like skiing? Would you be interested to try a new ski resort? You might be well familiar with the Alps…but how about the Carpathians? Come over to Predeal, Romania, in the winter and, while you’re there, get yourself an apartment in Predeal? A new residential complex called Predeal Ski Apartments (you can’t accuse the developer of being subtle :) ) is being built just opposite the Clabucet ski slope in Predeal.

The Predeal Ski Apartments project, featured so far only in computer generated images as the one above, includes 30 flats all within one building with a sturdy structure, including concrete frames and platforms, all topped up with a wooden roof. The building will have studio flats as well as one-, two- , and three-bedroom apartments, all having balconies facing the ski slopes. The surface of each flat varies between 58sqm for a studio flat and 242sqm for the largest apartments. The car park will be just a bit short in terms of spaces – the developers planned 28 underground parking spaces for the property owners.

Will this stretch your finances or will it be a winter holiday property on the cheap? Depending on what you will go for, the prices start around €1400 per sqm with two payment arrangements:

• 10% deposit, followed by 5-15% payments at different stages of the project,
• 90% deposit, and the rest of 10% at the end of the project. This option also comes with a small candy for the investors – a 5% price reduction.

Combining this with the sizes listed above, you can buy one of the studio flats for less than £60k…not too bad for a winter ski resort property. Just in case you’re already keen to spend this year’s winter holiday in one of these apartments, you will have to wait until next year, as the project is due to finish in November 2008.

If you are not sure whether you should invest in a holiday apartment in Romania, here are few reasons for investing in the Romanian mountain resorts:

• A new motorway is about to be built between Bucharest and Brasov. From Brasov you will be able to continue your travel to West on Transylvania motorway, a four lanes route leading to Hungarian borders (415km), one of the most ambitious motorway projects in Central Europe (ok, it won’t be ready for your first holiday in the Predeal Ski Apartments, but, when it’s done, you would be at least doubling your investment)
• Even without the motorway, Predeal and Sinaia are only a stone throw away from the busy/noisy/crowded Bucharest (around 60-70 miles), which makes them the preferred/ideal getaway option for the Romanian capital - buy to let would be a straightforward option
• The Clabucet skiing slope itself. I’ll just quote the technical figures, as I’m not quite the skier myself: medium difficulty, 2100m long (which makes it one of the longest slopes in Romania), level difference 390m (20% slope angle). Should the weather be on the mild side, the Clabucet slope can be covered with artificial snow and, for those who wish that the daylight would go on and on and on, it even has night lighting
• If you have no experience in skiing or you have kids keen to learn skiing, there is a Ski School in Predeal – Clabucet Ski School. This school slope has 200m in length, 30m level difference (or 15% slope angle if you prefer the percentage)

In terms of trends in the real estate market in these mountain resorts, here are some more facts:

• The real estate property prices in Predeal increased by 200% over the last 12 months (yes, that’s right, a 200% increase in price in one year)
• It is predicted that by 2012 there will be no more land available for real estate developments in the area
• you really need to do your (geography) homework before any land purchase. This is because the prices vary depending on the position of each land plot versus the main ski resorts - Sinaia and Predeal. To illustrate this with a brief price comparison, you can buy land in around Targoviste for €25/sqm (without any utilities) but prices do go as high as €150-300/sqm in well-positioned areas of Sinaia (around The Serb’s Tavern –Taverna Sirbului or Hotel Sinaia).

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