The real estate market, backed by the 39.75% growth of the construction sector, was among the major drivers of the local economy in the first nine months of 2008.
Romania's real estate market developed actively in 2006 on the back of rising foreign investments, strong demand and high yields. Experts estimated the annual real estate market growth at around 25% for 2005.
In the first three months of 2009 Romanian authorities issued 17,195 building permits, of which 15,368 for residential buildings, to cover 3.13 million sq m. in the first quarter of 2009 some 45,000 sq m of office property was delivered in Bucharest. The new office supply for the quarter was 25% down year-on-year, due to postponing of several large-scale projects. In 2008 strong competition on the residential market was expected, conditioned by the delivery of projects in biggest Romanian cities.