OREANDA-NEWS. February 10, 2012. The real estate market recovered in 2011, after a downturn recorded the year before. The number of sale/purchase operations went up by six per cent in 2011, after a 30-per-cent tumble in 2010, according to data put out by the Cadastre state enterprise.

The statistics include transactions with apartments, houses, land plots, trade and industrial venues and other types of properties. In 2011, the state-run Cadastre enterprise recorded 107,463 sale/purchase real estate transactions, against 101,274 in 2010 and 143,182 in 2009.

The number of real estate operations significantly increased in the last quarter of the year. Thus, in December 2011, about 12,000 real estate goods were sold and purchased, by 30 per cent more than in the same period of 2010.

Experts of the LARA real estate exchange said that although in 2011, the real estate market faced stagnation, the sales of apartments in Chisinau municipality rose by 19.6 per cent. As many as 1,408 apartments were sold monthly, against 1,117 in 2010 and 717 in 2009, when the real estate market was hit by the worst crisis over the past 10 years.

According to the same source, the sale of old dwellings on the secondary market accounts for 10 per cent of the overall increase on the market. Moreover, the use of new apartments led to a nine-per-cent growth in the number of transactions.

According to LARA real estate exchange, the prices of one and two-room apartments increased, whereas the prices of three, four and five-room flats went down. The average prices in 2011 stood at 600 euros per one square meter.

Over 277,000 real estate transactions (sale/purchase operations, legacy, donations and real estate exchanges) were recorded in 2011, by 27,600 more than in 2010.

The Moldovan real estate market witnessed a severe crisis in late 2008, when the prices of apartments in Chisinau reached a maximum of 900 euros per one square meter. In 2009, this figure decreased by 200 euros. In comparison with the pre-crisis period, the dwellings on the Chisinau's secondary market saw a 30-per-cent decrease in prices. Real estate experts forecast a 5-8-per-cent decrease in prices in 2012, if a new wave of crisis hits Moldova. Yet, they say there is still much uncertainty, which makes it difficult to make exact prediction.