Romanian Property News

The Ghencea area is most well-known for one thing: it is the home of the Steaua Bucharest football club. Beyond that, Ghencea used to be one of the North-West exit points of Bucharest, mixing poorer, outskirts housing, unused land, and a few industrial large beasts producing mostly pollution and noise ready to overwhelm the Bucharest atmosphere. With the increase witnessed by land prices, Ghencea now also benefits from a facelift, where all the above disadvantages transform the area into an attractive one for the near future.

What’s the relationship with the Spring then? A Romanian developer, the company Can Serv SRL, and the corresponding backing bank, Credit Europe Bank, are due to build in Ghencea a group of three blocks of flats, 3, 6, and 14-story high, under the project name Spring Residential. Ghencea is not exactly central Bucharest; this is why the flat prices are rather concerning, particularly for the smaller units. Just as in the example of the Trident blocks of flats in Berceni http://www.romanianpropertynews.co.uk/2007/12/08/trident-pinpoints-south-of-bucharest-for-affordable-flats/ , the overall prices for the smallest units are reasonable, but the sqm prices are plainly scary. The cheapest studio flats are just under 40sqm, with a 3sqm terrace – all available for purchase for around €70,000 once you add in the VAT…


While the €70k pricetag is bearable, the €1750/sqm that future owners will have to pay for the privilege is quite a bit on the high side. Moving on to the other extreme, you can buy a few two-bedroom flats stretching over 103sqm for just under €150k; while the €1450/sqm price is not exactly a bargain, you at least are getting more value for your money.

The project is in the advanced stages, as shown in the December progress pictures on the Spring website (http://www.primavara-rezidential.ro) – nice to see actual pictures of a project rather than computer generated images of funny-coloured buildings and square cars. You can also see in the far background a brief glimpse of the area: new villas currently being built, a bit of unused land, and some old houses as well. According to the developers, the two smaller blocks of Spring will be ready in…spring 2008, while the 14-story high block of flats will be available to the new owners in autumn 2008.

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