Thanks for that Auto, I still think that I'll probably take the punt and then forget about it for 5 -7 years. I agree that the development land is very attractive. I could tell you a couple of my success stories in that area but judging by your above post re: your land on the Black Sea Coast you have done as well as I have (if not a little better!). I haven't sold either and won't start to 'til the Spring.
Now to deal with Barryo...First thing to mention is that I live in Romania and have done for the last 6 years near enough. I speak the language and understand how things work out here. Corruption is a fact of every day life. I'd be a liar to say otherwise. That said, however, it's not the wild west. There are laws enforced by the state. Sure, if my mate is a judge, a well placed lawyer or a member of the Democratic Party then I can swing things a bit (just a little bit) to suit my aims. By and large, however, such matters have no bearing on my day-to-day business.
Now the land thingey..
The reason why agricultural land is such a good deal at the moment is that it is VERY, VERY cheap in a European context. 5 years ago, when I bought my holiday cottage, land in the village was being sold for 700,000 lei per hectare (20 Euro in your money). This Summer I tried to buy some and was quoted a minimum of 25million lei (700 Euro in your money). Thats for land that's all over the place, a hectare here, a hectare there. For land that is COMASAT ( all together) the current going rate is 1200 - 2000+ Euro per hectare. Are you following me? So...after a bit of research on the internet I turn up two interesting snippets of information.
(1) The average cost of 1 hectare of land throughout the EU is 14,000 Euro. That's 2.24 acres to you.
(2) Several large German and French firms are moving in to Romania and buying whatever land they can get their hands on for the growing of oilseed rape, the fundamental ingredient of biodiesel. Read for yourself the EU directives on biodiesel. Ever heard of the company MAN ( you know, the guys who build trucks in Germany)? Major investor in agricultural land throughout Romania, particularly in the western side. 80 million Euro being invested (not by MAN though) in a relatively small refinery for biodiesel in Caras Severin on the southern side of the country. These same guys have bought 150,000 hectares for a start and want to buy more on the western border region. Happily I live in that western border region!
That's the agricultural land thing dealt with...
Now as to how you know that the local economy is NOT driving the upsurgence in the property market then, well, I'm going to bow to your obviously better information on that one.... No doubt you will now explain to us all your reasoning.
You know what? I'm always delighted to debate with informed individuals the pros and cons of Romania or anywhere else but its kinda hard to take when I realise that many who choose to debate the topic own their own methane gas refinery and forgot to don their gas mask when they rolled out of the wrong side of bed this morning...