"As most rent prices have been adjusted by 15-20%, tenants feel entitled to require owners to rethink prices or negotiate a fixed exchange rate of the Romanian leu to the euro,” EuroMetropola said in a press release.
Real estate officials said this is one of the effects of the financial crisis, as many tenants, both individuals and companies, no longer afford to pay their rent or can’t manage to pay it on time.
"There are also many who can still afford to pay, but out of inertia or even because they have crunched their numbers, they come to the conclusion that they need to cut back on rent costs. The easiest solution is to renegotiate their contracts and adapt their terms to new economic conditions,” the statement said.
EuroMetropola added owners will accept renegotiation of contracts because they would have a hard time finding new tenants under the current circumstances.
"On the residential segment, supply has diversified, especially due to owners of several buildings who didn’t manage to sell them when prices were high. Once the crisis started, they could no longer get the price they wanted so they prefer to rent. Thus, rents decreased even as much as 40% in some cases,” the real estate agency said.
On the office and retail; space segment, many spaces have been vacated by companies that went bankrupt or moved to less costly and smaller areas.