REALTORS: The sale of homes built by the National Housing Agency distorts the market

• The prices are too low for Bucharest and too high for smaller cities

The sale of homes built by the National Housing Agency to their young tenants at prices ranging from 19,000 to 36,000 Euros makes realtors very unhappy. They say that the authorities are turning people into homeowners at prices half below those of the market.

Real estate analyst Ion Radu Zilişteanu yesterday said, as part of a round table on real estate matters: "The real estate market will be distorted by the requiring of these prices on a nationwide level. Compared to the prices of Bucharest, these homes built by the National Housing Agency are sold at prices 50% lower than the ones on the open market, while for other Romanian cities these prices are too steep. So I don"t think the plans of the Ministry of Development to sell 20,000 homes this year would be reached. I think many tenants won"t be eligible for taking out a loan, not even through the First Home program".

In turn, Cristian Clenciu, the chairman of the Romanian Association of Realtors (ARAI), said he was unhappy with the way the ANL will sell its homes to the tenants: "The authorities are distorting the market because they sell the homes at the construction price, which does not include the cost of the land they are built or the cost of utilities. In a private partnership, the cost of land and utilities weighs heavily on the final price. For now it"s pretty obvious that the buyers of ANL homes get the land for free".

Ioan Andreica, secretary of state in the Ministry of Development, answered: "It"s true that the homes of the ANL will be acquired at a price equal to the construction price for this year. But the tenants will pay joint tenancy on the land and VAT upon the purchase. We are currently discussing with the Ministry of Finance the issue of VAT for these transactions. The mayoralties need to decide on the selling price of the land or the value at which they will be concessioned to their current tenants".

Ion Radu Zilişteanu expressed his unhappiness with the inclusion of the ANL homes in the "First Home" program. He said that this move will obviously attract major resources to this program, to the detriment of other homes sold on the real estate market.