Buyer outrage: Thousands of Romanians at war with residential developers

On Tuesday evening, more than 300 buyers of apartments in Planorama residential complex in Bucharest lashed out at the representatives of the developer in one of the rooms of the Intercontinental Hotel, after having waited for well over two years to get their homes or receive their money back, which has stretched their patience to the point of snapping.
These people, from various social categories, are but the best example of a phenomenon that has expanded over the last few years, where thousands of people in Bucharest, as well as in other parts of the country, have paid several tens of thousands of euros and signed burdensome contracts based on promises, which in many cases turned out to be nothing but empty words.
The time when the economy was booming and apartment prices were going up from month to month made many Romanians spend part of their cash in hopes of a new, modern home or of a lucrative investment.
"In 2006, when I signed the contract, we imagined we could trust the developer and contracts in general," says a disappointed buyer in the Planorama complex, who was supposed to move in the new home in July 2007.
Now, however, when home prices are dwindling, the quality of the apartments in many projects is under par and job security is not what it used to be, so that buyers are outraged especially since some developers resort to modern blackmail methods.
"Besides Planorama, which is far behind schedule, the rest of the projects generally suffer delays of four or five months. However, I can say that more than 50% of the buyers in all projects, investors included, would like their money back, especially because of prices. Contracts are very well devised, however, by good lawyers, and people signed them, so there is hardly any way out of them," commented Valentin Ilie, CEO of real estate consultancy firm Coldwell Banker.
Besides Planorama, several other tens of people in Bucharest have been waiting for more than one year to see a residential complex completed in Drumul Taberei, near the ANL (National Housing Agency) district. About 100 apartments were sold in the Blue Tower building in Colentina, whose developer filed for insolvency not long ago, work stopped and no one knows how long clients will have to wait for their homes to be finalised or to get their money back.