Back in Romania – Impressions

The real estate market is going down – theoretically. but if you look in the newspapers the prices are still there…meaning…up. We rented a flat and had the chance to see all sorts of people and all sorts of real estate agents. it’s amazing. these guys are keeping the prices at around 300eur for a 2 rooms apartment. of course i found a studio at 400, too…WTF…was it covered in platinum?

We saw about 8 flats and then we gave up. we were lucky that we found one corresponding to our wishes for about 250 and sealed the deal.

In other countries, like when i was in Zurich, companies owned entire buildings and if there is a crisis, the prices really do get down. In Romania, everyone and their richy brother bought a flat or two and rents them for some extra money. If they don’t get what they expect for it, they just keep it there and don’t want “less” extra money.

There was this guy…with a suspect look and a 2 kilos necklace on his bull-neck – he had several flats for rent and tried to convince us that he was our only solution in this city…come on…who assures me that one night you will not come with some big guys and kick me out…i mean your face tells me this might be possible…
Then there was this doctor family…they had a very very good opinion about their flat and expected a high price even though the furniture was probably never changed in the last 30 years…and doors were hanging all over, the sink reminded me of the sink i used when i was living in a dormitory…they think that because you are a young couple at the beginning of your life together, you are willing to accept whatever conditions…because “on their times” they did that too.
And there was this funny guy…an agent who was trying to convince us to get a 3 rooms flat…when we clearly mentioned we prefer a 2 rooms flat, with better conditions.

They all expected to convince us they had the best offers just because we look really young and probably seem to be easy to trick.
Well…let’s be serious. I expect more from life than my parents expected and if i am young doesn’t mean that i am naive and that i have to think that “is normal” to live in a shitty flat because i am young and young people should accept stuff.

We finally found a family with whom we negotiate the price to what we wanted and the flat is great – it’s exactly what we wanted. it will be our little “dream house”. but why do you think is like a dream house? because this family made a loan and bought this flat and decorated it for themselves. it was actually THEIR dream house, until they couldn’t afford to pay the loan rates and had to rent it to make it pay itself. They had to move together with their kids, in their parents flat. and there goes their dream house…

I guess my dream house would be around 50000-60000 euros right now. I don’t want to make a loan – anything that makes me be a client for a bank, gives me chicken skin…anyways…I am living in someone’s dream house, and it’s very close to my dream house too, and i am paying 250eur per month.

60 000 / 250 = 20 years.

So if i would make a loan for 60 000 now, it will be for 20 years and i would probably pay back 70 000. the building will be old and the value of the flat in 20 years from now will probably be 40 000…while if i pay 250 per month, i can live 20 years with 60 000, i don’t make any loans, and i will not lose my financial freedom…i guess Romanians don’t calculate these things too often…since we are the only country in Europe where the flats property is above 90%…in other countries probably above 90% of the population lives in a rented flat…hmmm and which is among the poorest countries in Europe?

Once i met this old lady in Zurich…she lived in a flat of around 200sqm and it was gorgeous – facing towards a nice forest, within 30 minutes walk from the town center…and she paid…135 francs…which is about 100euros…amazing…why? because she had a life-rent-contract she signed when she was 20…
Forgot to mention…now the rent for such a flat would be around 2000 euros…
I wonder what would have happened if she made a loan 40 years ago to buy that flat? i guess her traveling budget and her vacations would have been substantially lessened…