The main reason for this condition is the “gray zone” of the construction industry. Banks have not been lending to builders for a long time because they realize that the bubble may burst at any moment. Risks are high, and banks are not used to risking their money. They have enough margin on less risky operations.
Where will the money for the construction industry come from? It used to be believed that the main inflow is provided by guest workers – Moldovan citizens working abroad and investing their earnings in real estate. This factor persists, but has become less significant.
Many experts are convinced: the main flow of money into construction is provided by, to put it mildly, not quite honestly earned money. “Hiding” them in the purchase of new apartments is the safest way to legalize them.
Whether this is true or not is the subject of another study. Now it is much more important to point out that this path is becoming a dead end.
Why – argued and detailed in his post expert in the field of real estate valuation Dmitri Tereburke.
“Free storage” of money in the apartment is over
He notes that in Chisinau it is considered that the apartment bought 2pro reserve” is a “gold bullion”, which simply lies and grows in value. A person may not live there for years and wait for the time when he or she will be able to sell the apartment 2-3 times more expensive than the price for which he or she bought it.
But rules and laws change, and in 2026 that logic is shattered by the dry arithmetic of ownership, Tereburke writes. When the market tanked, the estate tax goes from a petty receipt to a death sentence for liquidity.
An expert explains the logic behind this transformation:
1. The end of the “free storage” era. It used to cost almost nothing to own an “extra” apartment in Chisinau. Taxes were symbolic, and the increase in price covered any expenses. The apartment was an ideal safe for diaspora money.
What has changed: The cadastral revaluation of 2025-2026 and a radical increase in tax rates turn this “safe” into a paid service. Whereas you used to pay pennies, now the maintenance of an empty asset starts to bite you tangibly at the elbow. When an asset yields 0% growth (stagnation) but requires 1-2% of its value per year for taxes and utilities – it’s no longer an investment. It is a loss.
2. Psychological break: The investor turns into a seller. In Chisinau, thousands of apartments stand empty – this is the “frozen” money of migrants from Rome and London.
- Mechanics of the shock: As soon as the owner of the second or third apartment receives an updated tax bill amid the news that sales have fallen by 54%, a toggle switch is flicked in his head.
- Result: Fear of losing what they have accumulated becomes stronger than greed. Not single properties, but entire “investment portfolios” are thrown onto the market. The very people who created scarcity now create excess supply.
3. mortgage noose is tightening The real estate tax hits the most sick – on mortgagees with “zero contribution”. These people have no financial cushion.
- The average rate of 8% has already squeezed their budgets to the bone.
- Rising tax and utility bills are the straw that breaks the camel’s back. For them, the only way to stop the cash gap in the family budget is to sell the apartment. But there is no one to sell to. Demand is dead.
4. Tax Multiplier The real estate tax works like a catalyst. It doesn’t just take money away – it destroys faith in “concrete.”
- Chain reaction: More taxes – more people willing to sell – more offers on the secondary market – falling prices – panic among those still holding on. The state, trying to fill the budget through revaluation of the cadastre, is actually putting a match to the overheated hay.
From asset to ballast
Based on this logical chain, Dmitri Tereburke concludes: the growth of real estate tax in stagnation is a fuse. If in a growing market taxes are ignored, in a falling market they become the main driver of asset dumping.
The Chisinau real estate market today resembles a crowded movie theater, where someone quietly whispered “fire”. The tax inspectorate was just the first to open the doors, but not to exit, but to let in a draught.
Those who believed that square footage was a perpetual motion machine would soon discover that it was just an expensive-to-maintain passive. The math knows no mercy: when the cost of ownership exceeds the return on price appreciation, concrete ceases to be salvation. It becomes ballast that drags on the bottom.
