Moldova's property market in 2026: what the figures show

2 August 2026 · KX Estate Team

In the first quarter of 2026, 623 apartments sold in Chișinău, 52% fewer than a year earlier, against more than 15,000 active listings. Prices are holding at a historic high of roughly 1,700 to 1,900 EUR per m². Meanwhile the share of mortgage financed deals climbed from 4.2% in 2023 to 60.7% in early 2026 (source: IPRE, 5 May 2026).

Sales halved, prices did not move

A sharp drop in demand usually drags prices down with it. That did not happen here, and the gap between those two figures is what defines the current market.

Source for every row: analysis by the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE), published 5 May 2026.

The price line deserves its own note. In 2023 the average square metre was valued at around 1,070 EUR. It has nearly doubled in three years, and no correction is visible even with half the transaction count.

Why prices hold while demand falls

The explanation analysts converge on has two parts.

First, the supply of new apartments is constrained. A significant share of announced projects will not complete until 2027 or 2028. In that situation sellers on the secondary market are in no hurry to cut prices. They pull the listing and wait instead.

Second, the buyer has changed. When 60.7% of transactions are mortgage financed against 4.2% three years ago, buyers with their own capital have effectively left the market. What remains runs into bank approval rather than willingness to buy. Hence 15,000 listings against 623 deals: the stock is on the market, but the pool of buyers who clear a bank’s criteria is several times smaller.

One side effect is already being recorded: the volume of non performing mortgage loans is rising.

What this means for the rental market

A direct claim that falling sales pushed rents up does not follow from this data, and asserting it would be a stretch. The substitution logic does hold though. At roughly 1,800 EUR per m² and 8.57% annual interest under the Prima Casă Plus programme for the first half of 2026, some people who would otherwise have bought stay in rented accommodation.

For anyone running a rental portfolio, the practical reading is this. Rental demand right now rests on the unaffordability of buying rather than on rising incomes. That demand is steady but price sensitive. It does not justify a sharp rent increase, though it does lower vacancy risk.

Renting is being formalised at the same time

The second set of figures comes from the State Tax Service. Between January and June 2026, 19,229 lease contracts were registered, 33.7% more than in the same months a year earlier, and rental income tax receipts reached 58.9 million lei (source: SFS, 2026).

For scale: the whole of 2024 saw 26,086 contracts registered and 74.9 million lei collected. Half of 2026 has already produced about 74% of the previous full year’s contract count.

Since 8 May 2026 the SFS generates the liability on registered contracts automatically, through its “e-Cerere” module, showing it in the taxpayer account and on the EVO portal. Deadlines and the rate are covered separately in the article on rental income tax.

The conclusion for an owner is straightforward. Informal letting is no longer risky in theory, it is technically visible. Either the contract is registered and in the system, or it does not exist.

What this data does not cover

Worth being honest about the limits. Everything above on sales and prices concerns residential property in Chișinău. Comparable recent statistics for the commercial segment in 2026 are essentially absent from open sources: what exists is either agency listings or academic work built on data from earlier years.

So the −52% on apartments cannot be transferred to retail units or warehouses. If you work with commercial property, use your own portfolio as the reference: rent per m² across your units, how long a vacant unit sits, what share of leases renew. Those numbers are more accurate than any market summary.

How to use these figures

1. Check when your leases expire. In a market where buying is out of reach, renewing costs less than finding a replacement tenant.
2. Compare rent per m² across your own units. A wide spread usually means some tenants are still on terms set two years ago.
3. Make sure every contract is registered. With automatic assessment, discrepancies surface quickly.
4. Calculate yield against current property value, not purchase price. With the price per m² nearly doubling since 2023, yield measured against market value may have fallen noticeably even where rent has not changed. The method is set out in the article on yield and payback.

Where this shows up in KX Estate

All four points above need the same thing: portfolio data held together rather than scattered. KX Estate keeps leases, payment schedules, rent per m², expiry dates and reminders in one system, with multi-currency EUR/MDL/USD/RON at National Bank rates. Yield and payback are calculated against the property’s current valuation, so the picture moves with the market instead of staying frozen at the purchase figures.

In short: housing sales in Chișinău have halved, prices remain at their peak, and demand rests almost entirely on mortgage lending. Renting, meanwhile, is growing and formalising fast. No comparable recent data exists for the commercial segment, which is worth remembering when reading any market analysis.

Frequently asked questions

How far have apartment sales fallen in Chișinău? 623 apartments sold in the first quarter of 2026, 52% fewer than in the same quarter a year earlier (IPRE data, May 2026).

What does a square metre cost in Chișinău in 2026? Roughly 1,700 to 1,900 EUR per m², a historic high. For comparison, the figure stood at about 1,070 EUR per m² in 2023.

Why are prices not falling if sales have halved? Supply is constrained, with part of the new pipeline completing only in 2027 and 2028. Secondary market sellers prefer to wait rather than cut.

What does a 60.7% mortgage share mean? That buyers with their own capital have largely left the market, and the remaining demand is limited by bank approval rather than by appetite to buy.

Is there equivalent data for commercial property? No comparable public statistics for the commercial segment in 2026 could be found. The figures above relate to residential property in Chișinău.