Renting in Romania: long-term or short-term (Airbnb)?

The first concrete decision an investor faces after buying an apartment in Romania is who to rent it to, and how. Long-term letting produces predictable cash flow with little effort; short-term rental (Airbnb, Booking) can raise gross income but requires you to run an actual business. The difference between the two is far more than a spreadsheet: the building, the district, the size of the unit, how often the owner is in Romania and the tax structure all shape the outcome.

Long-term letting: predictability and low operations

Long-term letting is typically set up with a lease of one year or more. For an investor the main advantage is simplicity: one tenant, one contract, one monthly collection.

Points to watch:

• There is an obligation to report the lease to ANAF (the Romanian tax authority) and to declare the rental income. Filing deadlines and rates change from time to time, so we always recommend confirming them with your Romanian accountant.
• Contracts drawn up before a notary, or properly registered, strengthen the owner's position when it comes to collection and eviction in practice. Where the contract text is careless, the process drags on.
• Eviction in Romania rests, practically speaking, on the wording of the contract and on evidence. The deposit, late-payment interest, responsibility for utility bills and the handover report (proces-verbal) must all be written in from the start.
• The tenant profile determines the quality of the income. Bucharest has two strong segments: student demand around the universities, and corporate tenants in the office districts. A corporate tenant signs in the company's name, usually pays more regularly and stays longer.
• Furnished, well-maintained apartments let faster than empty units in the same building. Tenant expectation in Romania is furnished delivery.

In the long-term model the real risk is vacancy and tenant quality, not daily operations. That is why long-term letting is the default model for owners who do not live in Romania.

Short-term (Airbnb) rental: high gross, a real business

Central Bucharest (around the Old Town, Universitate, Victoriei), the airport area and the surroundings of the large office campuses, plus tourist regions such as Braşov and Sinaia, generate short-term demand. But the gap between gross and net income widens considerably here.

What has to be counted in:

• Cleaning, laundry, check-in, key handover, consumables and platform commission. If you are not doing this yourself, a management company steps in and takes a visible share of the income.
• Seasonality. Summer months, public holidays, conference and trade-fair periods are strong; mid-winter and late August are weak in some areas. Annual average occupancy cannot be estimated by looking at the best months.
• Wear and tear. High turnover consumes furniture, appliances and paintwork faster than long-term letting; a refurbishment budget has to be set aside.
• Regulatory risk. Across Europe short-term accommodation is moving towards stricter registration, reporting and building-level restrictions. Romania also has administrative obligations attached to tourist accommodation activity, and these can change over time. That makes it risky to base a five to ten year investment thesis on short-term letting alone.
• Approval from the building. The section below is critical on this point.

Building management: the asociație de proprietari factor

In Romania, apartment blocks are run by the owners' association (asociație de proprietari). For short-term rental this structure can be decisive:

• General assembly decisions and the internal regulations may restrict the use of apartments for tourist accommodation, or impose additional conditions.
• Neighbour complaints, noise and entrance-security issues are the most common reason short-term activity comes to an end.
• In some newer developments the management has prohibited short-term rental from the outset. This clause needs to be read before purchase.

When we assess an apartment for a short-term scenario, we review the building regulations, the general assembly decisions and the neighbour profile before the purchase. The title and planning checks (ANCPI records, mortgages and annotations, the notary file) are carried out with the same rigour in both models. Our guide on which district to choose for an investment apartment in Bucharest goes into the district-level detail.

In your own name, or through a Romanian company?

A foreign owner earning rental income in Romania chooses between two basic structures:

• Ownership in a private name, with personal income declaration. Usually simpler for one or two apartments; the accounting burden is low.
• Ownership and activity through a Romanian company (SRL). This can be more flexible where there are several properties, short-term operations, VAT-registered transactions, deduction of costs and depreciation, partnership structures or a future sale plan; in exchange come regular accounting, a filing calendar and Registrul Comerțului formalities. We cover the practical side on our page about setting up a company in Romania.

We do not quote figures here for tax rates, the VAT threshold or the applicability of the micro-company regime; these depend on legislation and must be confirmed with a Romanian accountant. The right question is not "which pays less tax" but "what do I plan to do with this portfolio in five years"; the structure follows from that.

One point to be clear about: buying property in Romania does not by itself grant residence. There are two routes we work with — the company administrator route, with at least €50,000 of capital brought into a Romanian company and no employment requirement; and the investor route, with investment at the level of €100,000 for an SRL or €150,000 for an SA, with a business plan and job creation, and the possibility of a 3-year permit for investments of €500,000 and above. We do not set out the procedure step by step here; we know the method and we handle the file before IGI. See our Romanian residence permit through investment page for more.

District by district: where each model lasts

The general patterns we see on the ground:

• Central Bucharest and the Old Town area: short-term demand is strongest here, but so is resistance from building management and regulatory risk. A mixed strategy (short-term in high season, long-term in winter) works in some files.
• Pipera and the northern office corridor (Aurel Vlaicu, Barbu Văcărescu): long-term is preferred, driven by corporate tenants and expat demand. Stable income with low operations.
• Berceni and the metro line in Sector 4: entry prices are more accessible and long-term demand from local tenants is deep. The tourist rationale for short-term is weak.
• University areas (Grozăvești, Regie, the Politehnica line): student-focused long-term letting, with turnover tied to the academic calendar.
• Ilfov (Otopeni, Voluntari, Popești-Leordeni): short-term works as a niche near the airport; elsewhere family-type long-term letting is more durable.
• Villas and detached houses: better suited to long-term corporate tenants or the diplomatic and expat family segment.

For every property in our listings we also note which rental model is realistic; two apartments in the same price range can belong to entirely different business models because of the building and the neighbourhood.

A practical framework for the decision

• If you do not live in Romania and have no management partner, start with long-term.
• If the property is central, compact in square metres and the building regulations allow it, short-term can be tested.
• Compare returns net of vacancy, management, refurbishment and tax, not on gross figures.
• If you intend to move to more than one property, set the structure (private name or company) correctly from the start; moving it later is costly.
• Think about the exit scenario as much as the rental yield: the apartment that sells easily is not always the one that rents well.

At ABTürk we take this decision together with the investor: before choosing a property we discuss the target return and your management capacity, carry out the title and building review, handle the notary and ANCPI processes, set up the contract and the ANAF reporting, and where needed bring in the company structure before Registrul Comerțului along with an accounting team. We stay on as a long-term partner in letting and management; finding tenants, following collections, maintenance and annual reporting run from one place. Final decisions and approvals belong to the relevant Romanian institutions, and legislation and market conditions change over time.

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