How to Check That the Price Is Fair When Buying Property in Romania: Price Sources, Comparable Sales, an Appraiser and the Foreigner Premium

A buyer who comes to Romania for a few days, without the language and without knowing the neighbourhood, is exactly the buyer it is easy to price high. That does not require deception; it is enough that the seller knows more than they do. The only protection is to check the price yourself, in sources that are independent of the seller.

This guide deals only with the question of price: from which sources you build a range, why they disagree with each other, and when a gap requires an explanation. We wrote separate guides on checking ownership and charges, on the notarial grid and on "bargain" deals.

1Why is there no "official price per square metre" in Romania?

Because official data is not published at that level. Real transaction prices are in the notarial contracts, but they reach the public only as an index.

• The INS house price index (the National Institute of Statistics), also published by Eurostat, is built from the full prices in contracts signed before notaries, including the land. It neutralises differences in location, age and size (a hedonic method), but it is national, quarterly and published about 112 days after the end of the quarter. It shows direction, not a price per square metre.
• ANCPI (the cadastre and land registration agency) publishes every month the numbers of sales and mortgages by county, without prices.
• The notarial grid (grila notarială) sets minimum values for calculating tax, and is updated at least once a year. It is a floor, not a value.

Everything else, such as the portals, reports by brokerage firms and online calculators, is based on asking prices: what sellers wrote in the listing.

2What does each source measure, and what is it good for?

A practical point: for areas outside the big cities, for example communes in Ilfov county, the large portals do not publish price series. There you rely on similar listings, on the grid as a floor and on an appraisal of the specific property.

3Why do two sources give different figures for the same city?

Because they measure different things. An example from summer 2026: according to Imobiliare.ro, new apartments in Bucharest were offered in August 2026 at about 2,549 euros per square metre. According to Storia, new apartments were offered in July 2026 at 1,982 euros per square metre, and second-hand apartments, by contrast, at 2,260. No figure is wrong. The main differences:

• Calculation method. An average is influenced by a few expensive projects far more than a median. Check what the source publishes.
• Sample. Each portal sees only its own listings, and some of the data refers only to apartments with 1 to 3 rooms.
• Location. Older buildings are often in more central locations, and many new projects are on the edge of the city. In the same neighbourhood, a new apartment is usually still more expensive.
• Time and unit. The INS index rose 12.1% in the year to the second quarter of 2026, and the asking price in Bucharest according to Imobiliare.ro rose 8.6% in the year to September 2026. A different period, a different place and a different type of price; there is no contradiction here.

4How do you correctly calculate the price per square metre of the property offered to you?

Before comparing to the market, make sure your figure is built the same way as the figure you are comparing it with:

1. Which area? Usable area (suprafață utilă), built area (suprafață construită) or an area that includes balconies give three different prices per square metre for the same property. The large portals calculate on usable area.
2. Is VAT included? VAT of 21% applies to a new apartment, as of October 2026. A price "plus VAT" and an inclusive price are not comparable.
3. What else is in the price? Parking, storage, finish level, and for a house also the plot, which completely changes the price per square metre.
4. What are you comparing against? The same neighbourhood and the same type of property, not the city average.

Suppose you are offered a new apartment of 80 square metres of usable area for 240,000 euros, including VAT: 3,000 euros per square metre. Now search the same neighbourhood for listings of similar new apartments, on the same area basis and with the same VAT treatment. If your price is above the range, that is a question for the seller. Sometimes there is a good answer, such as a high floor, a view or parking, and sometimes there is not.

5Comparable sales: what counts as a good comparable, and how do you get it?

An area average is only a baseline. The precise tool is transactions that actually closed, and a good comparable meets four conditions:

• The same neighbourhood, and if possible the same street.
• A property of the same type and size: villa against villa, apartment against apartment.
• Similar condition: new against new, renovated against renovated.
• From the last 12 months. An older transaction describes a different market.

Three to five such transactions are enough to see a range. The difficulty is that Romania has no sales database open to the public, so the transactions are obtained through a licensed appraiser or a local lawyer who works for you and has access to professional databases.

6An independent appraiser and the notarial grid: what does each add?

An appraiser. This is the check that is skipped most often. An opinion from whoever is selling to you, even if they are reliable, is the opinion of an interested party. What you need is a licensed Romanian appraiser, working under ANEVAR standards and chosen by you, or a lawyer acting for you, a party who is not rewarded for closing the deal. If you are taking a mortgage, the bank's appraisal is the basis on which the bank will lend, and it is a further checkpoint.

The grid. You can ask a notary who is not connected to the seller for the minimum value for the street. A price very far from the grid, above or below, is a reason to ask questions. But a grid lower than the developer's price does not mean you paid too much, because the grid is not market value. We set out its use in calculating tax in a separate guide.

7The foreigner premium: what is it, and which signs mean you should stop?

The foreigner premium is the extra a seller adds when they identify a buyer who does not know the local market. It is simple information economics: whoever knows less pays more. The argument "if the property rises in value it will even out" does not hold, because on the day you sell, the buyer will most likely be local and will not pay the extra, and you will absorb it.

Five signs that mean you should stop, even if only one of them appears:

1. Unnatural time pressure: "We need to close this week, there's another buyer."
2. Objection to an independent appraiser: a seller confident in the price does not fear a check you pay for.
3. No comparison with transactions: "The price is the price", with no reference to similar properties.
4. Pricing by story: a long explanation of why this particular property is worth more than the whole area.
5. No price per square metre: only a total, with no breakdown by area and by what is included.

8What do transaction volume figures say about price?

A little, but not nothing. According to ANCPI data, in 2025 46,321 units in buildings were sold in Bucharest compared with 50,884 in 2024, and in Ilfov 8,976 compared with 9,580. These figures show how active the market is, not how much it charges. They are counted by date of registration, not signing, so events such as the shutdown of ANCPI systems following a cyber attack on 14 July 2026 shift transactions between months. When the number of transactions falls and asking prices keep rising, there is room for negotiation. Also check how long similar properties stay listed.

9What to do before signing?

Before a reservation agreement or a preliminary contract, you should have in hand a price per square metre calculated on the same basis as the market, three to five comparable sales from the past year, the opinion of an appraiser you chose, and a written answer from the seller on every gap. We accompany Israeli buyers in building this check and framing the questions for the seller, and work alongside appraisers, lawyers and notaries licensed in Romania, who carry out the actions under local law.

Read next · 7 min readA Will for an Israeli With Property in Romania: Choice of Law, Form of the Will and Coordination With the Will in IsraelHow to write a will that works for property in Romania: Regulation 650/2012 and choice of law, notarial or handwritten wills, reserved shares, the Israeli will.Read the guide

The information in this guide is general in nature and does not constitute legal or tax advice on any specific transaction. Every transaction is assessed on its own facts.