How open banks are to lending: :"Out of 50 apartments sold, only two were paid with loans"

Expensive apartments, of over 200,000 euros, are currently selling only to clients with important cash reserves or with assets they can sell to buy a house, as outside the First Home scheme banks grant mortgage loans "only theoretically", according to real estate developers.

"Out of 50 apartments sold, only two clients bought on loans. Many sold other properties before buying from us. Others had deposits. Around one third of buyers are foreigners, while the rest are Romanians, mostly entrepreneurs, but also lawyers or managers of the advertising market or production," says Tamara Marinescu, a country manager with Spanish Alia company, which developed a 124-apartment complex close to Arcul de Triumf of Bucharest.
Banks' reluctance in granting mortgage loans is justified by the high number of apartments foreclosed lately. Despite this, real estate developers are upbeat about the chances of selling the built apartments.