Cluj-Napoca loses the title of the city with “the most expensive apartments”. Who dethroned him
Until recently, Cluj Napoca was the city where homes were sold at the highest prices in the country. Now, the situation has changed, says Daniel Crainic, Imobiliare.ro marketing director, in an analysis sent on Thursday.
The new apartments located in Sectors 1 and 2 in Bucharest are sold at the highest prices in the country, despite the fact that the most expensive real estate market is considered to be, for ten years, that of Cluj-Napoca.
New apartments in Bucharest are put up for sale, on average, for almost 2,500 euros/useful square meter. Acquisition costs vary, however, significantly in the Capital on the new segment. In areas such as Dorobanti, Herăstrău or Floreasca, such properties come on the market with prices starting from 4,800-5,000 euros/useful square meter and reaching up to 13,000 euros/useful square meter, according to Imobiliare.ro data.
If we analyze the offer available in the six sectors of the Capital, we can say that the average recorded in two of them considerably exceeds that of the Cluj residential market. In Sector 1, the average asking price for new apartments reached 4,192 euros/useful square meter. Sector 2 is the second most expensive with an average of 3,767 euros/useful square meter.
• Sector 1: 4,192 euros/sq.m
• Sector 2: 3,767 euros/sq.m
• Sector 3: 2,484 euros/sq.m
• Sector 4: 2,142 euros/sq.m
• Sector 5: 2,044 euros/sq.m
• Sector 6: 2,387 euros/sq.m
For comparison, the average asking price for new apartments in Cluj-Napoca is around 3,300 euros/usable square meter. The most expensive of these can be found in projects in areas such as Sopor, Intre Lacuri, Mărăști, Plopilor or Iris, but the asking prices do not exceed 4,000 euros/useful square meter.
The most expensive new properties put up for sale in Bucharest end up representing only about 5% of the total offer. The differences between the extremes of the local market are considerable in the context of the extremely varied mix of homes available for sale. There are also projects located on the outskirts, in areas such as Rahova, Berceni, Ghencea or Giulești, where the square meter does not exceed 1,500 euros, a fact that lowers the average recorded at the level of the Capital and places the city in total only in third place in the national top, not only after Cluj-Napoca, but also after Brașov.
The extremes of the Cluj residential market are, on the other hand, much closer. Basically, those who opt for a real estate purchase in the city in the west of the country generally pay more, regardless of the chosen home and its location.
“The market in Bucharest is much more sophisticated and must be looked at in depth: not only are the most expensive areas in the country found here, but the average prices charged for new apartments in both Sector 1 and Sector 2 far exceed the average price recorded in Cluj-Napoca. Bucharest, in fact, has a dominant position both in terms of volume and value. The overall lower average price only shows us that a large part of the offer is focused on the accessible, mass-market segment, which actually meets the demand”, said Daniel Crainic, Imobiliare.ro marketing director.
Prices advance quickly in the Capital and slowly in Cluj-Napoca
In the last year, the average asking price for new apartments in Bucharest increased by 22%, according to Indicelui Imobiliare.ro – a tool that has been monitoring the evolution of the residential market in the main urban centers for over 15 years through the most extensive database in the country.
In Cluj-Napoca, on the other hand, the price of new apartments increased by only 6% in the same period of time, a clear signal that recently the capital has started to quickly recover from the difference accumulated over the years.
The price differences between the two cities reached a record level in 2023, when apartments in Cluj-Napoca were sold at prices 60% higher than those available on the Bucharest market.
The offer of new housing in Bucharest, equivalent to the entire offer in Cluj
Even if the Bucharest market continues to register some decreases in the offer in the segment of new homes, it continues to be the most varied in the country. Approximately 7,300 new properties were available to buyers in the Capital at the end of last year, a number relatively equivalent to the total number of homes put up for sale in Cluj-Napoca, including those on the old market. In fact, the people of Cluj had access to around 1,300 new homes in the same period of time.
The offer of new housing in the Capital includes almost all apartments, and most of them are available in residential projects located in Sector 2, according to Imobiliare.ro data. We're talking about 2,000 units. This is also the sector that recorded the largest increase in the number of new apartments for sale in one year, by 7% to be exact.
In the following places we find Sectors 1 and 3, with 1,438 units, respectively with 1,168 new units for sale in the fourth quarter of 2025. At their level, the biggest drop in supply in a year could be observed, by 14%-16%.
• Sector 1: 1,438 new apartments
• Sector 2: 2,007 new apartments
• Sector 3: 1,168 new apartments
• Sector 4: 973 new apartments
• Sector 5: 675 new apartments
• Sector 6 1,012 new apartments
The fewest new apartments for sale can be found in Sector 5 of the Capital. It also includes some of the cheapest areas in the city. The expansion of the metro network may, however, change things in the future by increasing the interest among potential buyers and the attractiveness of the sector for real estate developers.
How much do new apartments cost in the other big cities in the country?
The average asking price for apartments in recently completed blocks in Brașov reached 2,683 euros/useful square meter, according to Indicelui Imobiliare.ro. In Timișoara, buyers pay an average of 2,141 euros/useful square meter for a new apartment, and in Constanța just over 2,000 euros/useful square meter. The only city where prices remain below this threshold, even after a 10% advance over the past year, is Iasi.
