STUDY Imobiliare.ro: The sales period and negotiation margin for apartments

The sales period is, like the negotiation margin, an indicator which shows the dynamics of the demand-supply report on the apartments market (and not only).

According to the most recent market report accomplished by Imobiliare.ro și Analize Imobiliare, in October-December 2018 interval, the necessary time to sell an apartment in Bucharest has raised, reaching an average of 90 days (in contrast with the 80 days that were necessary in the previous 3 months). This evolution is, however, completely normal, and it could be attributed to the cyclicality of the real estate market, given the fact that the trading activity is “relaxing” by the end of the year, due to both the peak reached in September and the holiday context.

The second trimester, the best for sales

Following the evolution of this indicator since 2014, it can be noticed that this growth is as normal as possible. According to this „pattern”, the second trimester of the year is the most prolific for apartments trading (and residential properties in general), then the sales period growths in the third trimester and then, in the fourth. The period when the residences are the hardest to sell is, usually, the first trimester of the year, the peek of the last four years being reached in T1 2017, when an apartment was being sold, on average, in 105 days.

However, what is remarkable is that in the last years it can be observed a general tendency in the increase of the time for selling an apartment. The minimum point from this point of view was reached in T4 2015, when an apartment needed on average 51 days to be sold. This evolution can be explained through greater market stability and also through a „relaxation” of the potential buyers, who tend to take more time to choose a suitable residence. In the last three months of 2018, the negotiation margins for the apartments in the big cities of the country (indicator calculated as the difference between the last price requested by the owners and the final one, for sale) recorded different evolutions, both compared to the previous three months and the similar period of 2017. Increases from both points of view were recorded only in Cluj-Napoca, where the negotiation margin is at the highest level of the regional centers that have been analyzed, namely at 3.7%. This fact can be due to the higher price level in this city, in accordance with the tendency of diminishing demand (manifested also because of the tempering of the rate of increase in the prices).

At the opposite pole, a significant quarterly decrease of this indicator took place in Brasov, where the availability of sellers to leave the price is at the lowest level, respectively 1.1%. In comparison, in Bucharest and Constanța, the trading margins were visibly more stable, both in comparison with the previous quarter and with the similar period of the previous year. Thus, the sellers in the largest city of the country lowered about 3.16% from the price in the last quarter of last year, while, in the seaside city, the negotiation margin stood at about 2.32%.

Source: https://www.imobiliare.ro/imoexpert/studiu-perioada-de-vanzare-si-marja-de-negociere-pentru-apartamente_db/