Monday, 20 October 2025
Romania continues to rank among the European Union’s lightest property-tax jurisdictions, underpinning housing affordability and investor appeal even as the government advances fiscal-consolidation measures, according to Cushman & Wakefield Echinox’s reading of the latest European Commission tax reports and recent policy changes. The European Commission’s Annual Report on Taxation 2025 shows EU-wide tax-to-GDP ratios easing in 2023 and reiterates longstanding recommendations to shift part of the tax burden from labor toward recurrent immovable property taxes; detailed, fully comparable country tables for 2024–2025 are not yet available.
Romania’s headline position—very low property-tax intake versus EU norms—is unchanged in the most recent official evidence set through 2023, when the country collected markedly less from property relative to GDP and total revenues than the EU average. Both the IMF and the European Commission have continued in 2024–2025 to highlight scope for modernizing valuations and broadening the base, viewing property taxation as a less distortionary revenue source that could support consolidation without undercutting growth.
Policy developments in 2024–2025 frame the outlook. In September 2024, the government enacted a tax amnesty to boost compliance and cash collection, while in April 2025 it revised the special construction tax regime, refining rates set in late 2024. Meanwhile, EU finance ministers approved Romania’s seven-year deficit-reduction plan in January 2025, which aims to lower the shortfall without large headline tax hikes, increasing pressure to improve the efficiency and structure of existing taxes—including property. None of these measures, however, substitutes for hard, published 2024–2025 data on recurrent property-tax receipts.
In the absence of fresh 2024–2025 property-tax series from Eurostat/DG TAXUD, analysts point back to the latest comparable tables through 2023, which place Romania well below the EU mean for property-tax revenue as a share of GDP and total taxation. Market observers also note the World Bank’s recommendations to recalibrate Romania’s property-tax framework—primarily by aligning taxable values with market realities—suggesting eventual reforms could lift local revenues while still leaving the burden below EU norms.
Vlad Săftoiu, Head of Research at Cushman & Wakefield Echinox, “Romania’s low level of property taxation represents an important competitive advantage which has significantly supported its real estate market development, while also facilitating the access to residential properties, contributing to Romania’s position as the country with the highest home-ownership rate in the European Union. On the other hand, the relaxed taxation translates into limited funds available for public investment, considering that these taxes are predominantly collected by local authorities.”
Romania’s property taxes remain structurally low by EU standards; official, comparable 2024–2025 figures are not yet published. The policy trajectory in 2024–2025 (amnesty, construction-tax tweaks, EU-backed consolidation path) sets the stage for valuation and base updates that European institutions and IFIs have encouraged—but until Eurostat/DG TAXUD release the next wave of country-level datasets, 2023 is the latest dependable benchmark.
Source: Cushman & Wakefield Echinox
