The most expensive plots in Chisinau are located in the historical area

The most expensive terrains in the capital are located in its historical area, Info-Prim Neo reports, citing the data made available to the public within the last public debate on the Chisinau Urban Development Plan (UDP). According to the debate participants, the price of the plots in Chisinau depends on the geographical location, on the future functional destination of the building on the requested terrain, on the availability of town, transportation and communications infrastructure, on the ecological state of the area, as well as on the proximity of industrial enterprises. UDP authors have divided the terrains into five price categories according to their value. The first category includes plots located in the historical area of the capital, restricted by the perimeter of the following streets: Creanga, Belinski, Lupu, Mateevici, Alecsandri, Halipa, Tolstoi, Bucuresti, Ciuflea and Stefan cel Mare Blvd. The price of a square meter ranges from 240 to 500 USD. The second category is composed of the historical centre situated among the following streets: Albisoara, Gagarin Blvd, Stefan cel Mare Blvd, M. Viteazul, as well as the terrains in the Centru, Buiucani, and Botanica sectors, adjacent to the historical area, some terrains in the Rascani and Ciocana sectors. This category matches the highest comfort of habitation, and a square meter will range in cost from 120 to 240 USD. The third category refers to the rest of the terrains in the living space of the city’s sectors, and is the most wide-spread in the capital. These terrains are characterised by an average level of city facilities, transportation and communication availability and by proximity to industrial enterprises. The price of a square meter ranges from 60 to 120 USD. The terrains from the forth category cover considerable surfaces and generally refer to areas with industrial platforms and settings, and their price of a square meter varies between 30 and 60 dollars. The fifth category is composed of production areas of high level of toxicity, technology-related risks, sanitary protection areas of the above, the airport with its annexes and restricted-access areas. Here, the recorded prices are the lowest, of approximately 5 to 30 USD, while in some special cases even 2 dollars for a square meter. Recent statistics reflects the gradual extension of the interests’ spectrum from the central area to the outskirts. According to experts, currently, the urban land market is developing, practically, in an unregulated manner. It lacks transparency and advertisement of information on terrains, even though the current legislation has set clear procedures for the purchase, sale, transmission, and privatisation of land lots, as well as for the continuous systematisation of the information about these plots. GUP authors claim that the improvement of the created situation is possible through the creation and monitoring of the land and fiscal cadastre of the terrains, the strict control of the procedure of terrains circulation from the public to the private sector, the adjustment of these actions to the regulations of the General Urban Plan. One of the GUP objectives is the elaboration and the implementation, in the incipient phase, of the legal-fiscal cadastre, which will establish the amount of land tax depending on their location, availability of town and social infrastructure elements. The experts also claim that Chisinau has exhausted its resources for territorial expansion due to some unwise decisions, lack of investments in the construction of multi-storied residential buildings, and in the social and town infrastructure. Thus, large surfaces in all sectors have been allocated during the 90s, favouring single family constructions against the regulations of the city’s General Urban Plan, approved in 1989.