Cities where apartment prices have doubled in a few years. In Bucharest they went up in price by 70%

Average prices for apartments have increased in the last 6 years in all major cities of Romania, but the increases were not uniform at the national level, the variations being influenced both by the evolution of the Romanian economy and by a number of local factors.

Apartment prices have increased in 6 years in all major cities of Romania. Pixabay photo

The analysis was carried out for the period 2019 to 2025 and took into account both new apartments and secondary market apartments with one, two, three or four rooms, for which sales ads were published.

Brașov, the largest percentage increase between 2019 and 2022

Between September 2019 and September 2022, the analyzed data shows that average apartment prices increased the most in Brașov, from 1,083 to 1,650 euros per square meter, corresponding to a 52% increase.

Major increases were also registered in Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu and Arad, all by over 45%, while in Oradea the increase was by almost 37%, and in Craiova by almost 32%.

In this 3-year interval, Bucharest reported a 30% increase in the average price, from 1,187 to 1,548 euros per square meter. In contrast, only three of Romania's big cities registered increases below 30%: Iași (29%), Constanța (28%) and Timișoara (20%).

The period September 2019 – September 2022 was marked in particular by the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought numerous travel restrictions and generated major changes for home buyers.

“The introduction of the telework concept starting from March 2020 in numerous fields of activity where this was possible led the population to pay more attention to the comfort of their own home. On the one hand, some families then decided to move to more spacious homes in order to set up a space dedicated to work, while other families also preferred to move from apartments in cities to houses located mainly on the outskirts of large cities, in order to benefit from the yard and more green space”, it is stated in the analysis carried out by a real estate platform.

Constanța and Sibiu, in the top of growth between 2022 and 2025

Subsequently, the period September 2022 – September 2025 brought again increases in all major cities of Romania. This time too the increases were uneven and in some cities the percentage increases were higher compared to the previous 3-year period.

Bucharest is the only city among those analyzed where the percentage increase from September 2022 to September 2025 was similar to that from September 2019 to September 2022. Thus, prices have increased by 30% in the capital in the last 3 years, from 1,548 euros to 2,017 euros per square meter.

On the other hand, in the last three years, apartment prices have increased the most in two of Romania's main tourist cities: Constanța (+43%) and Sibiu (+40%). Thus, in September 2025, the average price in Constanța reached 2,257 euros per square meter, which places the city in second place nationally, after Cluj-Napoca. The city by the sea has surpassed Brașov (2,203 euros per square meter) and even Bucharest (2,017 euros per square meter), which currently occupy the third and fourth places in the ranking.

Major increases were also recorded in Craiova, Oradea (each 38%) and Iași (+35%), while in Brașov prices increased by 34% to an average of 2,203 euros per square meter in September 2025. Cluj-Napoca is still the most expensive city in Romania from a real estate perspective, with an average increase of 32% over the last three years, up to 3,175 euros per meter square. At the opposite pole, the smallest percentage increases among the 10 analyzed cities were recorded in Timișoara (+28%) and Arad (+24%).

From an economic point of view, the period September 2022 – September 2025 was marked especially by the increase in inflation and interest on loans.

On the one hand, annual inflation peaked at 17% in November 2022 before gradually falling below the 10% mark after September 2023, only to rise again close to 10% from June 2025.

In the context of high inflation, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) increased the monetary policy interest rate, which implicitly led to an increase in the IRCC index, taken into account when setting interest rates for mortgage loans. Thus, if until the summer of 2022 the IRCC was less than 2%, from 2023 until now this index has always been close to the 6% threshold, which was actually exceeded in October 2025.

It is also worth mentioning that during this three-year period, cities such as Sibiu, Brașov and Constanța experienced an accelerated growth in tourism, but also a growing interest from people who chose to relocate to these areas, based on the desire to live in an environment with access to nature. In fact, this is one of the explanations why the three cities are at the top of real estate price increases, as part of the housing purchases were made either for investment purposes (for short-term rental) or for permanent relocation.

Prices have doubled in Brașov and Sibiu in the last 6 years

Overall, during the last 6 years marked by the pandemic and high inflation, apartment prices in Brașov and Sibiu have increased more than twice, by more than 103%, reaching in September 2025 at 2,203 euros and 1,921 euros per square meter, respectively.

As the most expensive city in Romania, Cluj-Napoca is in the top 3 and with a percentage increase over the last 6 years, with an average increase of 93%, while in Oradea the average prices increased by 88%, to 1,884 euros per square meter in September 2025.

Two other smaller cities in Romania also recorded increases of over 80% in average prices (Craiova by 82% and Arad by 81%), while in Iasi the increase was by 73%.

In Bucharest, the average price increase was 70%, to 2,017 euros per square meter in September 2025, and the only city among those analyzed with a lower increase than the one in the capital is Timișoara. In the city in western Romania, the increase was by 53%, to 1,891 euros per square meter.

The price rises, at almost the same pace as the average net salary

Compared to the number of ads published on the platform in each of the 10 cities analyzed, the weighted average price of apartments in Romania increased by 34% between September 2019 and September 2022, from 1,232 euros to 1,648 euros per square meter. Subsequently, the weighted average price increased by 29% between September 2022 and September 2025, up to 2,131 euros per square meter. Cumulatively, between September 2019 and September 2025, the weighted average price of apartments in the 10 cities analyzed increased by 73%.

At the same time, according to the monthly data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), between September 2019 and September 2025, cumulative inflation was 48%. In other words, the weighted average price of apartments has grown at a faster rate compared to inflation over the last 6 years.

On the other hand, INS data show that the average net salary at the national level increased by 75% between September 2019 and August 2025 (no – for September 2025 the data is not yet available), from 3,082 lei in September 2019 to 5,387 lei in August 2025.

Thus, the average net salary in Romania grew at a rate very close to the 73% increase in the weighted average price of an apartment in one of the 10 cities included in the analysis.

Prices are rising faster in Romania, but are lower than in CEE

Compared to European capitals in Romania's geographic region, apartment prices have increased more in percentage terms, but remain significantly lower in nominal terms.

Thus, according to the most recent annual Property Index reports by Deloitte, in the 5-year period between 2019 and 2024, prices for new apartments in the capitals of the Romanian region have increased by 32% in Vienna (from 4,868 to 6,432 euros per square meter) and 83% in Budapest (from 2,107 to 3,863 euros per square meter).

At the same time, all six European capitals in the region (Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Prague, Warsaw and Zagreb) have significantly higher apartment prices compared to Bucharest. For example, compared to the price of a square meter in Bucharest, apartments in Vienna and Prague are more than three times more expensive, and those in Budapest, Bratislava and Warsaw are almost twice as expensive.