Host: Cristina Grecu - Romania remains the country with the highest percentage of homeowners in the European Union, even if prices are rising, as everywhere in the world. The quality of the houses, however, especially their size, leaves much to be desired. Cristian Bacain, with the latest Eurostat data on this topic.

Reporter: Centralized information in Eurostat summary is from 2020, the first pandemic year, in which lockdowns and working from home have opened up another perspective in the preferences of homeowners, who have generally migrated from central apartments to green homes from the surrounding areas. Romanian real estate developers say they ended 2020 with record sales, and 2021 had the same positive trend, which led to price increases. Therefore, over 96% of the Romanian population lived in 2020 in a personal property, the highest percentage registered among the member states of the European Union and growing well above the average of almost 70%, in a slight decrease. Germany, Denmark and Austria are the countries with the lowest number of owners, just over 50%. Romania has two more records, this time negative, being on the last place in the size of houses - 1.1 rooms for one person, but also in the quality of housing, which can be measured in several ways, including the percentage of population living in a crowded house. Romania is thus the country with the highest congestion rate, over 45%, while the European average is 18%, according to Eurostat data.

Translated by: Radu Matei