The sales on the real estate market in the first three months of this year were by 60% higher than in the corresponding periods the previous years. Economist of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” Veaceslav Ioniță said the real estate market for the first time exceeded 30,000 apartments a year, in the first quarter of this year registering 31,029 apartments sold or bought during the past 12 months. This volume of transactions is twice higher than the annual traditional sales in Moldova in the last ten years, IPN reports, quoting a press statement of the economist.

The number of apartments sold by mortgage decreased, the number of bought apartments reaching 9,500 in annual value, as opposed to 9,700 in 2019. “The people continue to more actively buy apartments, but with a lower interest in home loans,” stated Veaceslav Ioniță.

According to the economist, even if the banks offer more opportunities of financing to the people, the real estate market grows much faster and the banks lag behind. “Even so, the portfolio of bank loans released in the building sector reached a maximum of 18%, which is an absolute historical record,” he noted.

Veaceslav Ioniță also said that even if the real estate market has grown during the past three years and a half, the price of apartments remained relatively constant. Owing to the stable price and the rise in Moldovans’ revenues in euros, the financial effort for the purchase of an apartment continues to decline.

The real estate market continues to be concentrated in the municipality of Chisinau, where almost 80% of the transactions in apartments take place. Last year, 40% of these apartments were sold by mortgage.