IPRE: Total family income should be about 39 thousand lei per month to buy an apartment in Chisinau.
This was shown by the calculations of experts of the Institute for European Policy and Reforms (IPRE), which were carried out to answer the questions on the salary one should receive to afford to buy an apartment in Chisinau. As the experts noted, there are no official statistics on real estate prices in Moldova, which would reflect the realities of the market. The cadastral value of housing is indicated in the government data, but it is used to calculate real estate tax, as well as for the general assessment of real estate, but does not reflect the market value. At the same time, the value of housing registered in the cadastre, indicated in the sale contract, also differs from the real sale price. Therefore, for market research, the experts used the requested value of housing in advertisements on the website 999.md. The obtained results showed that the prices for apartments are higher than usually mentioned in the public space and than indicated in the cadastral data. Thus, the sale price of apartments in the Center of Chisinau, according to experts, is 1628 euros per sq. m., in Riscani sector of Chisinau - 1444 euros per sq. m., Buiucani - 1354 euros, in Telecentru - 1325 euros, Ciocana - 1293 euros, Botanica - 1269 euros per sq. m. The experts calculated the median cost of the apartment and determined that to buy an apartment without repair it may require about 900 thousand lei, and with repair - 1.7 million lei, in the "white" version - 1.3 million lei. Assuming that the buyers' own contribution is about 20% of the cost of housing, the requested amount of the mortgage loan would be more than 720 thousand lei - without repair, more than 1.37 million lei - with repair, 1.4 million lei - in the "white" version. Accordingly, the monthly payment on the loan would be 6530, 9525 and, respectively, 12420 lei per month, and to get a loan the family needs a monthly income from 20406 to 38813 lei. At the same time, official data indicate that the average salary in Chisinau is about 14.5 thousand lei gross. Accordingly, the majority of the capital's residents cannot buy an apartment. The experts also stated that Chisinau is more urbanized due to the growth of migration, which in general stimulates the increased demand for housing. The experts also found an annual decrease in the area of housing commissioned and a decrease in the number of authorizations for the construction of residential buildings. Experts have estimated that over the last 20 years, citizens have invested about 4 billion euros in real estate in Chisinau. However, these investments were not supported by public investments in the expansion of the transportation network, communications, recreation and entertainment infrastructure, development of health care and education systems. At the same time, despite numerous moratoria on construction, Chisinau still lacks a land use policy and synergies between public and private investors. // 24.11.2023 - InfoMarket.
