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Houses in Romania the most crowded in EU
More than half of dwellings in Romania are very crowded, the highest level in EU 27, compared to the EU average of 20%. Romania is the country with most dwellings inhabited by their owners, according to the president of Alpha Bank, Sergiu Oprescu. The overcrowded dwelling is the one where the number of rooms is smaller than the number of adult persons in the household. 55% of houses in Romania are in this situation, compared to 17.6% at EU level, 22% in the Czech Republic, 47% in Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria, according to Mediafax.
A one-room apartment is considered overcrowded when a couple, with or without children, lives there. For minimum comfort such a family should have at least a two-room apartment.
At the same time Romania holds the highest number of dwellings where owners live – 98% of the residential space, a level matched only by Hungary with 95%. At European level 69% of dwellings are occupied by owners. 98% means that only 170,000 dwellings out of 8.5 millions existing in Romania are rented. That means a low flexibility of the labor force in Romania.
Germany is at the opposite pole, where 50% of houses are occupied by owners, followed by Denmark, Holland, Austria and Finland with a little over 50%, according to European Mortgage Federation.
France, Sweden and Great Britain are below the European average, while Spain, Greece and Italy exceed the average by 10-15%.
The situation is Romania is explained by the measure adopted in 1989 of selling apartments owned by the state, including nationalized houses, to tenants at low prices.
The president of Alpha Bank showed that beginning with the third quarter of 2010 the intention to buy or build a house or apartment has grown significantly in Romania, exceeding countries in the arew where recessing was not that serious – Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary.
According to Oprescu, the rising intention to buy a residential dwelling superposed a drop of finished dwellings, increasing the difference between demand and offer.
The Alpha Bank official did not take the scenario further, but it seems that in the case international financial markets calm down and the sovereign debt crisis in EU decreases prices for dwellings might grow significantly in Romania.