Romania needs a national, affordable housing program, adapted to local needs, and a functional legislative and financial framework, including for public-private partnerships (PPPs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs), participants at the Affordable Housing Summit Romania concluded.
“We have one of the highest home-ownership rates in Europe, yet four in ten Romanians live in overcrowded homes. Owning a home is not the same as having the home you need. To move from policies to projects, and from projects to homes people can afford, we need a national program and rules that work, including for public-private partnerships and REITs,” said Constantin Sebeșanu, the president of the Federation of Investors and Developers for a Sustainable Economy (FIDES), an employers’ organization representing real estate developers and related activities.
A 55-square-metre flat, bought with a 15% down payment and a 25-year mortgage, would take 56.3% of the average net salary. After the mortgage payment and a minimum cost-of-living basket, an employee on an average income would be left with EUR 47 a month. The analysis, made by the Institute for Visionary Cities (IOV) and presented at the summit, shows the hurdle to home ownership: not at the asking price, but at what is left of a salary once the mortgage is paid.
In 2025, 93.2% of Romanians lived in a home owned by their household, the second-highest share in the European Union, and 92% lived in a home of their own with no loan on it, according to data presented at the summit. At the same time, 40.4% lived in overcrowded homes, against an EU average of 16.8%, the highest rate in the Union. Arrears on rent, mortgage, utility bills or hire purchase doubled in four years, from 9.4% in 2021 to 18.5% in 2025, the steepest increase in the EU.
“Housing is relatively affordable. Financing it is not,” was the conclusion of the presentation by Florian Filat, Executive Director of IOV. The 56.3% payment in the model exceeds the 45% ceiling that the National Bank of Romania allows for a first home. The Colliers presentation by Gabriel Blăniță, Director, Valuation & Advisory Services, Colliers Romania, added to the picture: only 1% of Romanians live in a home with an outstanding mortgage and 7% rent, compared with 27% and 35% respectively in the euro area.
Matthew Baldwin, Head of the European Commission’s Task Force on Housing, said that housing is a fundamental right, not a privilege. It is also an issue for the economy and for jobs, including labor mobility, the European official added. Baldwin encouraged Romania to be the first country in the region to launch such a program.
The summit’s conclusions recommend that large employers and employers’ confederations bring hard labor-market data on where housing costs are holding back recruitment and retention, including for teachers, doctors, police officers and other essential workers.
In Romania, public-private partnerships were designed for large infrastructure. FIDES said it supports a public-private partnership framework adapted to housing projects, “with risks and benefits clearly allocated and with the impact on the public budget assessed transparently for each model, as well as the adoption, promulgation and implementation of the law on real estate investment companies, currently going through the legislative process in the Chamber of Deputies.” REITs could bring long-term capital into rental housing, in a country where renting is still the exception, the organization said.
Cohesion Policy 2021–2027 supports investment in social and affordable housing worth EUR 500.5 million in EU funds, of which EUR 206.5 million was redirected to the sector through the mid-term review, according to the Ministry of Investments and European Projects. Access to these funds is not automatic: it depends on the rules of each program, on the eligibility of investments and on well-prepared projects. Dragoș Pîslaru, the interim Minister of Investments and European Projects, said that what is really missing in Romania right now is a coordinated vision for the housing sector. The next step, in the minister’s view, is a shift from direct public funding to mechanisms that attract private capital.