The Romanian Development Ministry significantly increases fines charged to homeowners and local authorities who fail to carry out technical inspections and start rehabilitation works on buildings considered to have a high seismic risk. read more...

Bankrupt shopping center City Mall Bucharest will be put up for sale for the fourth time on June 10, in an auction starting at EUR23.58 million, some 30% less than the initial price of EUR33 million. read more...

City Mall shopping center in Bucharest, currently bankrupt, might find a buyer at the third auction, for a price of at least EUR 26.2 million, considering Casa de Insolvenţă Transilvania, the project's liquidator, sold a document detailing the conditions of contract to an interested investor. read more...

Bucharest's Asmita Gardens, the housing project entailing the largest private investment, around 120m euros for the building of seven blocks of almost 800 apartments, has been struggling in the past two months after the sales team decided to leave. read more...

An investment fund (Phemus Corporation) registered at the same address as Harvard Management Company, an entity part of the prestigious US university Harvard that manages 27bn dollars' worth of assets, is the majority shareholder in the biggest forest owner in Romania, Scolopax SRL of Focşani. read more...

2011 is set to be the year of a new wave of projects for the experienced office market developers though the vacancy rate in Bucharest is still around 15%. read more...

The prices of new Bucharest apartments have dropped, almost three years since the onset of the real estate crisis, by just 15-17% in a series of housing complexes, a "discount" that for potential buyers is practically cancelled out by the 13% leu depreciation. read more...

The national authority for the protection of consumers issued 101 fines totaling 434.750 lei after a control of real estate agencies. According to data presented, 290 real estate operators were controlled. 12 of the real estate agencies were temporarily shut down until they manage to correct deficiencies and the authority also issued 244 warnings. read more...

Romania is ranked tenth regarding new shopping center development in 2011 and 2012, with projects totaling 256,000 square meters, according to a research conducted by real estate consulting company Cushman&Wakefield. read more...

Green City Construct company, controlled by the family of businessman Dumitru Bucşaru, owner of Unirea Urziceni football team, exited insolvency just two months after the Bucharest Court of Law issued a decision in this regard, saving thus the biggest villa project from bankruptcy. read more...

The residential markets in Bucharest and Sofia will not be able to make a complete recovery this year, while Warsaw and Prague will be the most attractive locations in the Central and Eastern Europe, Polish real estate company REAS said in a survey compiled in partnership with Jones Lang LaSalle. read more...

Romanian President Traian Basescu on Friday sent to the Parliament a request to reexamine a normative act on urban planning, asking lawmakers to enhance and clarify the provision concerning urban planning certificates, the Presidency said in a press release. read more...

Apartment rents in Romania fell by up to 12% in March compared with September as owners preferred to rent out dwellings rather than sell them, according to a survey of property website imobiliare.ro. read more...

The statistics of notaries public on real estate transactions concluded last year did not reveal major changes to the situation recorded in 2009, with the market experiencing a relative stagnation. read more...

The sales team of the Asmita Gardens housing complex in Bucharest, which consists of over 800 apartments, has ended its activity, although nearly half the homes in the seven tower blocks built on Splaiul Unirii Avenue in the Mihai Bravu area are yet unsold. read more...

Banks have turned on the tap of funding for real estate projects again, with the development of two new malls - Electroputere Craiova and Colosseum Bucureşti - and the acquisition of the Praktiker store in Craiova being financed through bank loans worth a cumulated 70 million euros. read more...

Colliers International, one of the biggest players on the real estate consultancy market, posted a 35% turnover increase in 2010, to around 3.9 million euros, returning to profit with a managing team whose average age does not exceed 30. read more...

Blake Horsley, head of the investment and office department of Colliers International real estate consultancy, says Romania must come up with a nice economic story to regain its appeal in the eyes of major real estate investors, who have forgotten Romania despite the significant price adjustment. read more...

Romanian house and apartment prices dropped some 10% between January 2009 and September 2010, according to data released by the national statistics institute INS. read more...

Romania's construction output rose 17.6% on the month in December 2010, the highest increase in the European Union, official data showed Thursday. read more...