Residential rental prices in downtown:
Almost the same ones with semicentral!

      Ladies and Gentlemen! Today I will share with you a secret that many people see, but very few people realize in the market of Bucharest nowadays. I refer to the rental market, which today is influenced by the general turbulence that the Romanian Real Estate market is facing.
      So, if you want to rent a studio or an apartment with 2 rooms today, you have the following options: At the outskirts of the city, or any “bad” area, you will find not renovated homes for 150 - 200 euro / month. Going to the semicentral areas, like Titan, Vitan, Timpuri Noi, Dristor, Tineretului, Drumul Taberei, Militari etc, you will find prices between 250 - 350 euro / month. Now, let us go to the downtown areas, even to Dorobanti zone. You will be amazed to find that the prices are almost the same! Theoretically talking, people are asking for much more. But in reality the final rent is more or less the same, depending on the needs of the owner and on the advance payment of the tenant.

A colleague of mine just rented a studio at Dorobanti for 250 euro / month
      The initial price was 350 euro / month and we are talking for a renovated studio, located exactly ON Calea Dorobanti. The price was negotiated to 250 euro / month and the contract was signed yesterday evening. It was not the only offer like this. There were plenty more. How do I know? As my company’s headquarters moved at Dorobanti area, she was searching for a place close to work and she had a big list with offers. In the same time, during the previous 2-3 months another 2 colleagues of mine rented new homes in other areas of the city.
      For these 2 I have a special friend (actually a colleague nowadays) who is probably the best “scanner” of the market, feeding me with hundreds of offers whenever I want to. She has reached the “impossible” level of being pro-active, including properties that she thinks I should know about  them (even if they are not in the initial list). So, we checked lists of endless offers, until to find the suitable ones for my colleagues.
      “We”, yes. I helped too, actually I was trying to advise during this procedure. I also betted with them in most of the cases, being sure that we will obtain prices that are not presented in the adds today. Looks like I was not so wrong, all of them reached the result they were targeting.

“Why does this happen? Is it a coincidence?”
      It is simple. Who were the clients of the central and expensive areas? The foreigners, employees of major companies with “large” compensation packages including expensive residences (more than half of them are gone nowadays, while for the vast majority of the other half these packages have been seriously reduced). Who else was renting a home here? Several Romanians who were trying to make a statement, presenting their wealth and their new status. Most of them are in trouble now… Jobless, or blocked without cash, they try to reduce their costs by all means. Last but not least, living in these areas (especially Dorobanti etc) means higher costs for several services, as even the local market with agricultural products) is more expensive.
      So people left… Massively. In the second part of 2008 they started renegotiating, in the first part of 2009 they emptied their homes, without the owners to change the price, but now the year ends and a property can not stay empty forever. So, rental prices started decreasing, when someone is determined to rent, pays an advance of some months and talk directly with the owner. “What is the problem with the agents?” Nothing new, the majority of agencies here in this blessed country continue trying to raise the prices, so as to receive a bigger commission (or a high fixed amount).

How to negotiate
      So, try to do the following simple strategy: Do NOT give to the agent any offer of yours, so as to transmit to the owner. Ask to meet the owner directly, sign the contract with the agent for his commission, negotiate with the owner and in the end you pay also the agent for his work. (Yeah, I know that I should not say things like these… but unfortunately you must try the agent VERY much so as to let him negotiate for you. If not, pay him and take the control).

Is it going to change soon?
      No. With less demand for expensive areas and more for the areas where normal Romanians live, the situation will remain like this at least for the next few months, until Easter time. If the market will notice this lack of balance, things will be resolved by then. If not, we will continue in the same direction. With empty expensive apartments and highly demanded apartments in semicentral areas.

      “Is it the only part of the market where this happens?” No, but I will not give you all the tips at once…