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Foreign ownership of Land in Romania
Law no. 54/1998, regarding the juridical circulation of land, explicitly provides that "the foreign citizen shall not be granted the ownership right for land" but such a citizen could establish a company in Romania, in order to buy as much land as he wishes.

In fact, foreigners completed more than 95% of the recent large real estate investments in Romania, declared Ionut Bordei, sales director with Eurisko. Investors from outside the country have completed the bulk of commercial property transactions including most of the class A&B offices, residential compounds, shopping- malls, business parks and hypermarkets completed in the last few years.

Israelis, Austrians and Spanish are at the top of the list. The French have invested heavily in retail property - Carrefour and Cora representing the leading French companies. German investors, particularly, Metro Group International and Selgros are equally prominent players in the retail sector.

In the Office sector, Portland Trust, a Dutch company, has built two class A offices in the heart of the city - Opera Centre 1 and Opera Centre 2. Europa House, has built a 13,000 sq. m. Office building, owned by the Israeli company GTC.

The price of land in central Bucharest is up to 1,500m2, dependant upon location, availability of utilities and building height limitations.

Agricultural Land During 1998-2004, the total surface of extravilan agricultural land transacted was of 355,725 hectares. "80% of which was sold to foreign investors", stated the ARAI presidents. The Italians were the quickest to spot the potential of the Romanian land business, by buying large plots in Banat, Ureche added. The businessmen in the Peninsula have bought land at 200-300 euro per hectare and now they sell it to the Germans for 1,200 euro/hectare.

During 1998-2004, there were requirements for the purchase of 430,000 hectares located in the extravilan and 200,000 purchase contracts were signed, according to the data supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture at the end of last year. The Timis County was on top in terms of land sales with 108,000 ha, which represents 15% of the county's size. This is followed by the Arad county- 34,000 ha, Constanta - 15,000 ha, and Caras-Severin - 14,000 ha. The highest value of extravilan lad was registered in Prahova, with 80 million lei, followed by Ilfov, with 49 million lei. In the south, in Baragan, land was sold also to the Greeks, Turks and Italians. "The demand is for lands of at least 500 hectares, between 600 and 1.200 de euro/hectare", Ureche added.

Jurnalul National, April 1st, 2005