Housing sales crisis forces developers to offer €10,000 discounts

Sales of new apartments dropped by some 50 percent in the first six months, compared to the monthly average in 2007. April and May were critical, because rumors started circulating at the beginning of the year, especially in February and March, about a real estate market crisis.

“Some 80 percent of developers are offering discounts worth €5,000-€10,000. Promotional offers are meant to stimulate sales and enable the developer to meet his plan for which a financing contract was signed. Normally, as soon as developers obtain financing from the bank, the latter insists on the sale of a certain number of apartments within a given period, in order to qualify for the rest of the loan,” according to a declaration for Business Standard by Ilinca Paun, Director of the Residential Division of the Colliers International real estate advisory company.