Some realtors would like the "First Home" program to continue to cover old homes

The intention of the Government to restrict the "First Home" program to new homes will deepen the deadlock of the real estate market, officials of (APAIR), the Professional Association of Romanian Realtors says. In a press release sent to our editors, the agents of the association state that keeping the current form of the "First Home" program and providing home buyers and sellers with better information would be the best solution to revitalize the market.

Contrary to the general opinion, the current form of the program does not include any restriction on the type of buildings which can be acquired. The "First Home" program allows the buying of old and new homes alike as well as taking out loans for building homes from the ground up. Moreover, this was confirmed in practice, APAIR officials say, as 29-30% of the loans guaranteed so far were taken to buy new homes or to build homes from scratch.

The association also added that in general, users of the "First Home" program are young families with low or average income, that want to move away from their parents or stop paying rent as soon as possible without paying a large amount of money. However, new homes in accessible areas exceed the financial possibilities of young families. Because of this, preventing the purchase of old homes will cause the real estate market to freeze again just as it was thawing as a result of the "First Home" program, as prices for new homes or which are still in the project stage located in city areas exceed the purchasing power of young buyers.