What does it cost to keep an apartment in Romania?
What it costs to keep an apartment in Romania bought through a company
Everyone calculates the down payment on an apartment. Thirty thousand euros for a property priced at about €100,000 is the figure named in the very first conversation. The second figure almost nobody calculates before the transaction: what it costs to keep this apartment and the company every year after that.
Let us break it down across three levels: the company, the property, the status. All amounts are current as of August 1, 2026. We do not give yield percentages or the size of the rental income for a specific property: they depend on the terms of the transaction.
WHAT THE COMPANY’S ANNUAL UPKEEP INCLUDES
A Romanian company that earns income from renting out its own property operates under the micro-enterprise regime at a rate of 1%.
Accounting support costs €600 per year under the contract. This amount covers regular reporting on time, tax returns, the tax calculation, the paperwork for the lease agreement and keeping the company ready for an inspection.
This service cannot be a one-off. The obligation to report arises from the moment the company is registered, not from the moment of its first transaction. A missed period does not disappear — it accumulates.
The difference between the regimes is not in the percentage but in the base. The 1% rate is calculated on the company’s income, while the standard profit tax regime is calculated on profit. For a company whose income consists of rental receipts, these are two fundamentally different amounts.
WHY THE EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT HOLDS UP BOTH THE TAX REGIME AND THE STATUS
The micro-enterprise regime comes with a requirement: the company must have an employee formally on the payroll. The residence permit, in turn, is issued on the basis of an employment contract with the client’s own company.
It is one and the same document. It meets the condition of the tax regime and at the same time provides the ground for the status.
The practical conclusion follows: the employment contract is not the last item on the list and is not something to arrange “when you get around to it.” It is a load-bearing element of the structure. If no employee is hired, the company loses its preferential regime, and the owner has no ground for renewing the status. The gap is discovered a year later, when the document is due for renewal, not at the moment of the mistake itself.
WHAT EXPENSES THE PROPERTY ITSELF GENERATES
Utilities and maintenance under the lease agreement are paid by the tenant. This is a term of the specific agreement, and it can be verified. The consequence is simple: if the apartment stands empty, these payments fall on the owner.
The local building tax for a legal entity is up to €100 per year; the amount depends on the property.
Mandatory insurance is about 50 RON per year. An honest caveat matters here: this is the minimum required by law, not full insurance protection for the apartment. The mandatory policy covers a limited list of events. Voluntary insurance is a separate item with its own cost.
Renovation, furnishing, finding tenants, move-in and day-to-day matters concerning the property are handled by the management company. The management fee is calculated under the contract, based on the scope of work for the specific property. There is no single figure for all properties; the contract sets out exactly what the work includes.
HOW MUCH IT COMES TO PER YEAR AND WHAT CHANGES ONCE THE INSTALLMENT PLAN IS PAID OFF
The fixed part of the annual upkeep consists of three items:
— accounting support — €600;
— local building tax — up to €100;
— mandatory insurance — about 50 RON.
The order of magnitude is about €700 per year. It is an amount known in advance and planned once a year, not bill by bill.
The management fee under the contract and the installment payment, until the plan is paid off, are counted separately, outside this amount.
Residence permit support costs €1,300. The approximate duration of the full cycle is about four months. There is no single timeline for everyone: it depends on the situation and the documents.
The rest of the property price — around €70,000 — is paid in installments over three years. The installment plan is interest-free; it is provided by the seller of the property, and its terms are set out in the contract. The buyer chooses the payment schedule: quarterly, every six months or once a year.
With no interest, that comes to around €23,300 per year. Rent at a base rate of €1,000 per month brings in €12,000 per year.
The rent covers about half of the annual installment payment; the owner pays the rest.
Since there is no interest, the proportion does not depend on the chosen schedule — the buyer chooses convenience, not price. Taking into account the 1% tax and the annual upkeep, coverage is around 48%, so the wording “about half” holds for both gross and net rent. This calculation assumes the base rate and an occupied property: when it stands vacant, the owner pays.
The client becomes the owner right away, not after the last payment — the payment period is not a period of waiting for the title.
Once the installment plan is paid off, its payment goes away. The fixed upkeep stays the same: accounting, building tax, insurance.
The reason is that these are different categories of expenses. The installment plan is a way of paying for the property, and it is limited in time. The upkeep is the cost of maintaining the structure, and it is permanent for as long as the property belongs to the company. The property belongs to the company outright, and the annual cost of ownership has not gone up.
FOUR MISTAKES THAT COST A LOT
The first. The company has been opened, but no accounting is kept. The company is still listed as active: it has a number and a bank account, and from the outside everything looks done. Inside, unfiled reports pile up.
The second. No employee has been hired. The preferential tax regime rests on a condition that is no longer met, and the ground for the status is never formed at all.
The third. The property was bought without a legal check, and the TVA question was not resolved before the transaction. Buying through a company registered for TVA: if the transaction meets the requirements of current legislation, the buyer may not have to bear the TVA cost of 21%. The question is settled before the transaction, not after.
The fourth. Income was received but not declared. When the bank asks where the funds came from, it is not the owner who answers with words but the company with documents.
If any of this has already happened, it can be fixed. The sequence is the same: pull up the period, calculate what needs to be additionally assessed and filed, sign the employment contract, bring the tax regime into compliance. Neither the time nor the cost of the recovery can be named before the specific documents have been reviewed.
WHO THIS STRUCTURE SUITS AND WHO IT DOES NOT
It suits those who are ready to run a real operating model: a company with accounting, official income, a signed employment contract.
It does not suit three categories of people. Those who see the company as a formality for the sake of a document — without accounting and a contract, the structure does not work. Those who do not have the entry budget right now: it is more honest to wait than to come in at the limit. And those who are counting on guaranteed income — rental income is not guaranteed and depends on the terms of the specific transaction, and the installment coverage is calculated for an occupied property.
Two cases of buying in your personal name should be kept apart. An apartment bought in your own name in the hope of a status is a mistake: the property does not give a right of residence. An apartment bought in your own name to live in is simply housing that solves a different task, and it is not a mistake.
Your place of residence does not change in any of these scenarios: your city, your children’s school, your doctor and your job stay the same. The Alliance and Armonia office is in Constanța — you can come there, see the property and sign the contract in person.
WHERE TO START
The legal background is settled: the Council of the EU has formally adopted the extension of temporary protection until March 4, 2028; the written procedure was completed on July 30, 2026. The act will enter into force on the day after its publication in the Official Journal. At the same time, the extension of the European regime does not automatically extend the national document, benefits, municipal compensation, medical benefits or the permitted period of absence from the country — these deadlines are checked separately.
There is a horizon. There is no need to rush — but putting it off is costly.
There is one entry product: a strategic assessment. It is free and non-binding. A review of the situation, at least two routes, the budget and the sequence of steps — for a specific apartment, a specific company and a specific family.
The code word to get in touch is ПЛАН.