Experts believe that the determining factor for the reduction in the number of apartment sales and purchases is price growth and stricter rules for justifying the origin of funds for the purchase of real estate. The launch of the Prima Casa Plus program also accelerated the price growth to a certain extent. According to the real estate index of Acces Imobil agency, the average price of apartments in Chisinau in the first half of 2025 amounted to 1720 euros per square meter. According to some other estimates, it reached 1900 euros per square meter.
The price increase was influenced by the limited supply of housing under construction, increased costs of construction companies, shortage and high prices of land plots for construction. Some experts believe that the reason is artificial restraint on the supply of new apartments and speculative schemes that drive up prices.
Due to the fact that the above factors continue to pressurize the market, there is no hope for a decrease in apartment prices in the capital in the near future.
According to Ilya Sopivnic, director of Imobilus real estate agency, one of the significant events that influenced the behavior of buyers was the parliamentary elections. Uncertainty in the period of waiting for the elections made buyers postpone the purchase of housing, in this regard, sales fell. But the elections have passed, and now the market is gradually recovering, but very slowly. It will take at least half a year, the expert believes, until the market starts to pull up to the previous level. Those who intended to solve their housing problems, but postponed it for various reasons, are forced to rent apartments. And since rent is also becoming more expensive, they will sooner or later come to the need to buy their own homes as a more reasonable investment.
Next year we can’t talk about a decrease in apartment prices, but there will be no growth either, Ilie Sopivnic believes. But we will see a revival of sales. This will be influenced by the pent-up demand. Against the background of rumors about the crisis, people postponed purchases in the hope that everything will “settle down”. And in six months or a year they will still come to the market.
But the reduction in sales has a positive moment – there is a wider choice.
“We had a similar situation during the pandemic (2020-2021) and during the crisis of 2008, – says Ilie Sopivnic. – Then people became more cautious, postponed expensive purchases. This led to the fact that the supply increased and the choice became more diverse. And those who had an opportunity to buy housing, took it”.
The director of real estate agency Nika Imobil Petr Oleinic says that next year we should not expect a drop in apartment prices.
“Currently, the real estate market is stagnant in terms of the number of transactions, not prices,” he says. – Prices will not fall unless some global force majeure happens. The cost of housing is influenced by inflation, which depends on energy prices. Real estate cannot become cheaper when prices are rising for everything else. But it will not become more expensive, because the purchasing demand is limited by the existing high level of prices”.
Most likely, next year we will face a period of stagnation, i.e. high prices and low sales, he believes. There may be a market adjustment, but not a fall.
Victor Chernomorchenko, a specialist of real estate agency Acces Imobil, does not believe that real estate prices can fall. In his speech on one of the TV channels he noted that Chisinau is the main city of Moldova, the main financial flows are concentrated here, there is migration from other settlements. This puts pressure on the real estate market. Over the previous 10-15 years, housing prices have been rising gradually, but in the last two years they have increased much more significantly. This has caused a reduction in the number of transactions. But the market has not stopped. Some number of transactions are still happening. People’s situation is changing, and when there is a need for housing, they will buy it. But there can’t be constant growth; after the surge of the last two years, stagnation may have been necessary to determine where the market is going and where the economy is moving.
Experts also predict stabilization in the rental housing market in 2026.
“After a surge of activity in 2024, there is now a situation where there are far more apartments than people willing to rent them. Last year we found temporary tenants much faster than this year,” says Ilie Sopivnic. – But the rent rates are definitely not expected to go down. Landlords will not go to the previous prices. Even if the apartment is more difficult to rent, sooner or later the tenant is found. The only thing, maybe, the rental price will decrease for expensive apartments, the rates for which are more than 1000 euros per month”.
The land market is also not expected to change significantly. Taking into account that in the suburbs the prices for land plots are lower than in the city, in the absence of money for an apartment, for 30-40 thousand euros people buy a plot for the construction of a house. “Today this is an alternative option. and such purchases are even more in demand than apartments. But I think that there are unlikely to be serious changes in this market,” says Sopivnic.
Victor Chernomorchenko believes that Chisinau today faces one of the biggest problems of the last decades – housing affordability. Apartment prices are growing faster than incomes, new neighborhoods are often developed without sufficient infrastructure, and the old housing stock continues to deteriorate. The solution to this problem is possible using the experience of European cities that have gone through similar stages in their development.
Thus, instead of chaotic construction of scattered buildings, it is necessary to develop full-fledged urban neighborhoods of medium floor (7-10 floors), creating density without overloading the urban environment. They should be provided with the necessary social infrastructure (schools and kindergartens, medical centers, green areas and places for recreation, etc.).
It is possible to create a real segment of affordable housing in the form of social and cooperative apartments built with the participation of the state or municipality. In order to avoid speculation, such apartments should be restricted for resale for at least 15 years. Mass renovation of Soviet-built apartments can also create a significant reserve of additional housing.
