As a supplier/ fitter of furniture packs, I'd offer you the following piece of advice to get soemthing like value for money. Ikea Bucharest is indeed officially the most expensive Ikea store in the whole group. It can work out very expensive if you take it at face value, but the mid-range kitchens for example, are mostly very good value, if you buy them incomplete.

The trick it to buy the worktop elsewhere (stick to 38-40mm though, not the cheap crap Romanian's seem to love, 25mm thick), chose simple door adornments (handles range from 0.5euros each, to 5e each, therefor, when buying 18 handles, it makes a difference). Metro or Selgros often have good deals on Ovens & Hobs (350e for a set), Candy for example, reasonable quality.

(Do however, make certain you buy an IKEA tap, even if you don't get the sink. The are simple, & they work well. Your only alternatives, after expensive German boutique taps, are Romanian, Turkish or Chinese. If you are balckmailed, threatened, bribed, or even given prizemoney to fit one of the latter, walk away quickly. A faulty tap will trash your newly fitted worktop & base units, not to mention bigger problems if left unchecked. Never take the risk with local market sink taps. The best ones, oare utter tosh. Due to poor tolerancing etc & poor machine tools, threads & bosses leak internally, leading to weeping at the base or hoses. Bit too much detail for this forum, so just trust me on this!)

Also, curtain poles & tracks are very cheap in Ikea, but the curtains are not cheap, though convenient. Ditto lighting, some of the basic lighting is ultra cheap, & the trendy stuff is very expensive. The best solution is to set a budget for each room, based on some elementary benchmarking, & then go or have someone go to Ikea, Metro-Cosntrcution, Pracktika, etc etc to piece it all toghether.

Regards
Damian
White Mountain

Dear Shell

The above address is in fact a business address. Being as familiar as you are with Bucharest you will already know that probably 95% + of downtown offices are in fact in converted apartments. In some cases whole blocks converted into office as is the case in buildings such as Stiracco. I have attached a link of the location and perhaps if you visit you will have a different opinion. Many investors in Romania with several well known companies with flash offices, fountains and BMWs have been duped by flash not realising they are the ones who are paying for it.

It will be interesting to see how confident those of you who bought some of the off plans 12-18 months ago fare out. Personally I think if you get 6% rental return on them you will be doing exceptionally well, However, as a company operating from an old Comunist block (The same build quality as Unirii Bvld & built in 1992) that has now a current value of in the region of 3,500-4000 per meter and a potential rental yield of 8% we do stand to be corrected.

Good luck to all seeking furniture pack, IKEA is probably the most expensive IKEA Branch in Europe. They will charge you an additional 10% for assembling the furniture and realistically another 10% to deliver it or more dependant on what floor you are on. As for your electricals and gas, are you aware you need to be there when qualified person comes to fit them. That a washing machine guarantee is not valid unless the company supplying fits it?

Romania is not a market that can be looked at through Anglo Celtic Binoculars. There are many variances to that what investors are accustomed to. We look forward to hearing from you.



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