If you are looking to buy a vacation home or second home or invest in Romania, Transylvania or the Black Sea and you are a foreign citizen/investor, there are a few things you need to know about the procedure and costs for acquiring Romanian land. or Romanian houses.
After 2012, foreign citizens EU citizens (non-Romanian) can buy a house or apartment in Romania and can freely buy and sell any Romanian property, without restrictions. Along with the selling price of the property, buying real estate in Romania has other associated costs.
If you have chosen to collaborate with a Romanian real estate agent/broker, you can expect to have an additional commission of approximately 2-4% of the property price. The local tax will be 2-4% of the property price. The signing of a contract must be witnessed by a notary public who presents it for certification by the Property Registry in charge of real estate records. Romanian notary public fees are around 0.5-1% of the purchase price. You will also have to pay fees to the Property Registry (“Cartea Funciara”) to register the Transfer Deed. The Romanian land registry fee for the purchase of a property will vary from 1 to 3% depending on how long the seller has owned the property and the value of the property.
Romanian law on property states that citizens of EU member states, legal entities incorporated in EU member states, and stateless persons domiciled in an EU member state may purchase land in Romania only if the land used for secondary residence or for secondary headquarters after a period of 5 (five) years from Romania’s accession to the EU (from January 1, 2012); only for agricultural land and forest land 7 (seven) years from Romania’s accession to the EU (from January 1, 2014).
But for citizens, legal persons and stateless persons who are not from an EU member state, the Romanian legal system establishes that they can buy land in Romania, under the conditions of international treaties between Romania and the states of origin on these persons, under a reciprocity basis.
From our point of view, a prudent investor will hire a Romanian lawyer/Romanian law firm, who will work closely with the notary in verifying the title, obtaining the extract from the Land Registry and drafting the property transfer contract. property. of the real estate. This means that the Romanian lawyer will act only on behalf of his client and will be responsible to him, while the notary will not have the same degree of responsibility to the buyer.
Under Romanian law, there are three basic rights to land and buildings, such as the right to own property; usage rights such as lease, usufruct, surfaces; concession right. The principle of contractual freedom represents the key core of property law in Romania.
Sometimes an investor/buyer may choose to enter into a pre-sale contract, whereby the seller agrees to transfer the property to the buyer on a certain date in exchange for an agreed consideration. The content of the pre-sale contract will stipulate all the commercial and legal conditions for the transfer of ownership, as conditions prior to the definitive transfer of ownership. The closing of said pre-purchase contract does not mean the transfer of the property, but rather the binding obligations stipulated for the parties, regarding, for example, the damages or sanctions provided for therein, if the seller refuses to sign the definitive contract. . public deed of transfer within the agreed term.
The closing of the pre-sale contract is to protect the investor/buyer from any possible purchase from other buyers and issues related to the fixed price and duration of a future purchase. From our point of view, it is essential that the pre-sale agreement is signed before a Notary Public and clearly stipulates the sale price and other clauses related to the duration of the future purchase. In this case, it can be enforced judicially at the request of the buyer as a property transfer deed.
A sales agreement signed in Romania, in accordance with Romanian law, will obligatorily stipulate: obligations of the parties for the fulfillment of the sales contract, delivery and quality conditions of the goods and/or services, terms, payment methods and guarantees of payment, payment instruments and insurance price, contractual risk, as well as the method of resolving eventual litigation arising from the contract. Other required elements include the full name and identification data of the parties (for legal entities) and the name of the person signing the contract (representing a legal entity).
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