You don't read Romanian, isn't it?

Let me translate for you the main ideas behind an article published this evening in an influential Romanian daily newspaper, Cotidianul.

The title states: The performance of the new apartments do not justify the rising prices (Rom. Vinzarile de apartamente noi nu justifica scumpirile)

Main idea: In 2007 developers offered in Bucharest almost 21.000 new apartments. However, only 7.000 were bought. Taking into account that ~30% are usually bought by investment funds, it seems that only 4000-4500 were really bought by final users.

Question that the journalist puts down: then why should we expect to see prices rising for another year, since people aren't hungry to buy? Nobody really knows the answer, but influential analyst Liviu Ureche answers: "The numbers are very low and are under 50% of what was expected. ... Many people can't get a loan from the banks. However, I think that the market will be able to support this year another 15% rise [-this is tipical from any Romanian real estate agent, the facts are black but he/she says that there is a chance that white and black are the same colour] but for some projects that will remain unsold it is possible to see the contrary."

According to reports from the National Union of the Public Notaries submitted to Cotidianul, the performance of old apartments (those build in communist era) in 2007 is also poor, worst than in 2004-2006.

My comment: there is an obvious bubble there, and this bubble is set to burst.