Buying a business in Romania: café, restaurant, hotel, shop

Buying an existing business in Romania produces results faster than starting from zero: you take over customer flow, a team, licences and often a known name. But turnover is not the only thing you inherit; contracts, debts, staff obligations and sometimes administrative problems that are hard to unwind come with the business too.

Two different deals: are you buying the property or the business

When a café, restaurant or hotel in Romania is advertised as "for sale", there can be two very different transactions behind it. We clarify this distinction in the first conversation, before anything else moves.

• Property purchase (the real estate): you acquire title to the shop unit, hotel building or commercial space (cadastral registration and the land book, Cartea Funciară). The trading name, the licences, the staff and the customer relationships are not part of the deal. You rebuild the operation with your own company and obtain the permits again.
• Business purchase (share transfer): you buy the shares of the SRL that runs the operation. The company's licences, lease, employment contracts, supplier agreements and stock continue with you — and so do all of its debts and its historic tax exposure.

A third route also exists: transferring the operating assets (equipment, stock, brand, leasehold position) as a package into your own new company. We often prefer this path when we want to stay clear of past liabilities; in exchange, some permits and the lease have to be renegotiated. Which structure is right depends on the business's history, on who owns the premises, and on whether the buyer also has a residence objective. We set this out in more detail on our page about the investment structure.

Licences, permits and planning compliance

In Romania, food and accommodation activities depend on the approval of more than one authority. The fact that a business is trading does not mean its paperwork is complete. The main headings we examine:

• Municipal operating licence (autorizație de funcționare), plus any additional permits for a terrace, signage or music at night hours.
• Health and food safety registrations: DSP registration and, for food businesses, DSVSA; whether the kitchen layout, ventilation and storage match what is registered.
• Fire safety: the ISU opinion or authorisation. In hotels, multi-storey restaurants and high-capacity venues in particular, the absence of this document means serious later cost and a risk of closure.
• Planning and use compliance: does the registered use of the property in the land book match the activity actually carried out? In a space registered as residential, commercial use raises the question of a change of destination, the consent of the building association and neighbours, and where required an urbanism certificate from the municipality.
• Unauthorised works and alterations: enclosed terraces, added floors or partitions that do not appear in the land book become the buyer's liability.

Some of these documents attach to the company, others to the premises. In a share transfer the licences usually stay with the activity; when you take over through a newly formed company, they have to be obtained from scratch. That is where the difference in time and cost appears.

Lease, staff and liabilities

If you are not buying the property, the lease is the most valuable asset the business holds. In Bucharest's old town or a good seaside position, the remaining term of the lease sets the value of the business directly.

• Term and renewal: years remaining, renewal rights, the rent indexation formula, the landlord's right to terminate on a change of control.
• Consent to transfer: many leases require the landlord's written approval if the tenant company's ownership changes. A share transfer completed without that consent can leave the business without premises.
• Deposit and accrued debt: rent, service charges, electricity, water and heating arrears.
• Staff: employment contracts are visible through Revisal records; seniority, outstanding holiday balances, unpaid bonuses, and whether key people such as the manager or head chef intend to stay.
• Company burdens: tax position with ANAF, Registrul Comerțului records, shareholding structure, mortgages, attachments, loan and leasing agreements, open litigation.

A share transfer always involves notary and trade register steps. Asking for the company's financial statements and register extracts before the transfer is not a negotiating tactic; it is a precondition.

The reality behind turnover and costs

The problem we meet most often in business sales is the gap between the turnover presented and the turnover recorded. You cannot buy income that never entered the books; you cannot finance it, and you should not pay a price based on it. Our approach:

• Compare declared turnover against official financial statements and POS or till reports.
• Build the real monthly total of rent, payroll, energy, supply and maintenance; in seasonal businesses, count the dead months.
• Reflect the age of the equipment and the need to replace it in the price: kitchen line, refrigeration, air conditioning, room equipment in a hotel.
• Understand the logic of the asking price: is it the value of the property, the equipment and stock, or is a "key money" element being paid for location and footfall.

Where the numbers cannot be verified, we advise valuing the deal purely on the physical assets and the lease.

Choosing the area: tourism or everyday demand

The type of business and the location define each other. Our portfolio contains several groups that work on very different logic.

• Bucharest old town (Centrul Vechi) and the centre: heavy footfall and strong demand for cafés and restaurants, but high rents and strict municipal rules on noise and terraces.
• Bucharest's living neighbourhoods and Ilfov: Berceni, Pipera and the surrounding communes have population growth, new residential schemes and steady demand based on everyday needs; suitable for convenience stores, bakeries, pharmacies, salons and neighbourhood restaurants. Offices, warehouses and small production space also gain value in this ring.
• The Black Sea coast (Constanța, Mamaia): high turnover potential tied to the summer season, against a short season and hard competition. In hotel and guesthouse files we look at how the annual average occupancy is actually formed.
• The mountain belt (Brașov, Sinaia): two seasons, winter and summer, on a line where domestic tourism is strong; for small hotels, guesthouses and restaurants a more balanced profile than the coast.

The same concept becomes an entirely different investment in two different areas. That is why we ask clients to start the search not with a concept and a budget, but with the operating model they want.

How this connects to residence

A significant share of investors who want to buy a business also want residence in Romania. Here we have to be precise: buying property does not, on its own, create a right of residence. Under Romanian law there are two routes that ABTürk works with:

• The company administrator route: based on bringing at least €50,000 of capital into a Romanian company; there is no job creation requirement.
• The investor route: investment at the level of €100,000 for an SRL or €150,000 for an SA, with a business plan and employment; at €500,000 and above, three-year permits come into play.

On the administrator route, the capital brought into the company can convert into the property or operating assets bought for the business; in other words the shop or hotel you will use is not an idle part of the investment but the investment itself. The order in which this structure is built and the way it is documented are critical; we do not spell out the procedure here, because every file is different and we design the method and manage the process ourselves. You can read the scope of both routes on our page on the Romanian residence permit through investment, see current files in our listings, and our separate guide on setting up a company in Romania completes this step.

At ABTürk we do not simply present business files as adverts: we choose the acquisition structure (property, shares or asset transfer), check licences and planning compliance, review the lease and the staff obligations, test the numbers, and run the notary, Registrul Comerțului and, where relevant, immigration steps in the right order. Write to us with a concept and a budget and we will narrow down the suitable areas and the realistic options together.

The final decision always belongs to the competent authorities, and legislation and market conditions can change; for that reason we reassess every file against the current situation.

Frequently asked