More socialization, less expense. How the Romanians go out to the restaurant towards their neighbors

Romanians go out more often at the restaurant, but spend less than their European neighbors. Although the payment notes have increased over the inflation rate, the amounts remain more than twice as much as those paid by Hungarians or Czechs.

Romanians spend less than half than the Czechs when they go to the restaurant. Freepik photo

Romania has the third fastest advance in the world in terms of expenses for meals in the city, after Turkmenistan and China, from a sample of almost 80 analyzed countries in Europe, Asia and North America, according to Oxford Economics Data quoted by Colliers.

In 2024, a family in Romania spent, on average, about 830 euros to eat in the city, which means a total of almost 6.2 billion euros at national level, an amount of more than 5 times higher than a decade ago. In the opinion of the experts, the growth reflects a higher level of living, the accelerated urbanization and the change of generations, all with direct effects on the consumer behavior and, implicitly, on the real estate market.

“Although it is a significant increase compared to 2010, Romania remains following other countries in the region, as a clear amount, not to mention Western Europe. For example, a family in Hungary spends around 2,000 euros annually, and one in the Czech Republic – almost 1,700 euros. A possible explanation would be that Romania still has one of the largest rural populations in Europe, which has a negative effect on the media. However, the real difference between a Bucharest, from Cluj or Timisoara and a resident of Budapest, Brno or Prague – when it comes to income or expenses – is smaller than they seem to indicate these figures ”explains Liana Dumitru, director of Retail Agency at Colliers.

The increase of more than five times the amounts allocated for the meals in the city far exceeds the inflation rate and reflects a clear change in the consumption behavior of Romanians. According to consultants, this evolution is supported by the increase of revenues – the increase of wages, which has almost doubled the purchasing power in real terms -, but also by a change of generations.

Young people, more open to experience

Young people are more open to experiment, explore new tastes and turn the meal into a city into a form of socialization, pampering or discovery. Eating in the city is no longer an occasional luxury, but becomes more and more part of the urban lifestyle.

At the same time, the success of the “S -type eventsyou shoot open“Or” Street Delivery “, in which certain urban areas are closed to car traffic and reopened to humans, shows a solid appetite for street trade, despite the quick advancement of online shopping in the last decade. According to experts, this interest is also explained by a strong cultural feature: Romanians often prefer to see or test a product before purchasing. Eurostat data confirms this trend, suggesting that direct experience still counts a lot in the purchase process, which opens significant opportunities for the development of pedestrian commercial areas and investments in the proximity retail.

“The street trade goes through a visible transformation, which will become more and more accentuated in the coming years. The big cities already have areas where locals and tourists are naturally gathered, but the agglomeration of these spaces shows that there is a clear need for expansion. This is why we expect a wave of real estate investments that will capitalize on this potential, aiming more and more central areas, but also crowded residential communities with opening to proximity trade.”, Stress Liana Dumitru.

Romanians allocate on average only 3.3% of the income available for meals in the city, according to Colliers experts. By comparison, in the countries of southern Europe, such as Spain, Greece or Portugal, this percentage exceeds 10%. Although Romania is far from this level, the rate of growth of these expenses is advancing, and the specialists believe that, in the long term, a doubling of the weight is realistic, especially in the context of lifestyle changes and income growth. Under these conditions, an increase in amounts spent in total for eating in the city up to over 10 billion euros is very possible in the next 10 years