What is registered to you on the day of payment: the buyer's right and the entry in the carte funciară
What is registered to you on the day of payment: the buyer's right and the entry in the carte funciară
On the day of payment a specific right is registered to the buyer, and its name depends on whether the property is finished or still under construction. For a finished property in the European Union, this is ownership: the notarial contract is signed, and the same day the entry goes to the land book — carte funciară. For a property under construction, a right to a future property is registered on the day of payment, and ownership appears only after commissioning. This article goes through these mechanics document by document; there is no data on yield or payback here.
What is registered to you on the day of payment
Ownership is registered to you, and it arises on the day the notarial contract is signed.
The entry in the land book — carte funciară — is filed by the notary the same day; the right passes with the entry, Articles 885 and 1676 of the Romanian Civil Code. The notarial form here is a condition of validity: a contract in simple written form does not create the transaction. How the transaction day itself goes at the notary is covered in a separate article on the transaction procedure.
For a property under construction the picture is different: until commissioning, what is registered to the buyer is a right to a future property, not ownership of the apartment.
• Finished property — ownership with an entry in the land book on the day of the transaction.
• Property under construction — a right to a future property until commissioning; ownership appears after commissioning.
If construction is underway in Ukraine, until commissioning a special property right to a future real estate object is registered — Law No. 2518-IX. It arises from the moment of state registration and terminates when the object is commissioned: ownership is registered in the register in its place.
The date of this transition is determined by the pace of construction, not by the amount already transferred.
Who can buy a finished property in the European Union
For citizens from outside the European Union the purchase is available.
A building is acquired with no restrictions based on citizenship; the restriction concerns land — it is held through a Romanian legal entity, under a reciprocity agreement or as a right of superficies (Law No. 312/2005). An apartment in an apartment building counts as a building.
There are two conditions, and both are checked before the transaction:
• Proof of the origin of the funds the buyer pays in. This is a requirement of European regulation, not of a particular bank.
• The bank decides on each operation: passing the check cannot be guaranteed, but the documents can be prepared so that there are no questions about them.
The property is always registered to the client — to an individual or to their Romanian company. You can take part in the transaction in person, under a power of attorney or through a management company acting under the client's power of attorney.
What the transaction consists of: the contract, the entry in the carte funciară and installments
The transaction consists of one notarial contract, an entry in the land book the same day and — with installments — the seller's legal mortgage on the unpaid balance of the price. There is no separate preliminary and main contract here.
• Contract — one, notarial; the form is mandatory for the transaction to be valid.
• Ownership — registered on the day of signing.
• Seller's legal mortgage — on the unpaid balance, Articles 1723 and 2386 of the Civil Code; removed with the last payment.
The procedure in case of late payment and the conditions for removing the encumbrance are written into the contract itself and read out by the notary before signing, not discovered later.
After full settlement the seller signs a statement at the notary confirming receipt of the full amount, and the mortgage entry is removed from the land book.
The encumbrance does not restrict ownership as such: from day one the property can be rented out, transferred to a company and used as a basis for further steps. Only the freedom to dispose of it without regard to the seller's interest is limited — selling to a third party before full settlement requires paying off the balance at that transaction or the seller's consent.
Procedure, timelines and entry cost
Entry — 30% of the price on the day of signing, the balance on a 36-month schedule with no interest.
The owner's route consists of four steps, and they run in parallel rather than one after another, so the total timeline is set by the longest of them.
Property benchmarks:
• Property — about €100,000.
• Down payment of 30% — about €30,000, including notary fees and tax.
• Balance — about €70,000 over 36 months with no interest.
• Monthly payment — about €1,900.
• A comparable two-room apartment on the major EU seacoasts — €200,000–300,000.
The difference is explained by the market's history, not by the quality of the property or its size: the major EU coasts have already gone through strong price growth, our coast has not.
The four steps of the route:
• Company — opening an SRL, remotely.
• Property — notarial contract, ownership on the day of signing.
• Rental — official company income, handled by the management company.
• Status — a residence permit based on an employment contract.
Fixed values of the route: opening the company — from €1,300 (document preparation by a lawyer and a registered address), about a month, remotely; status support — €1,300, about three months, one trip for biometrics; accounting services — €600 a year; full cycle — about 4 months.
The timelines, amounts and procedure are in the contract.
What to do if money has been invested in an unfinished property
The first step is to find out which right is registered and to which property, and not to make the next payment into the same structure until that is clear. The free remainder of capital is assessed separately from the money already invested: these are two different decisions, and they should not be mixed.
• Find out what exactly is registered: a right to a future property or ownership.
• Do not increase the investment in the same property until this is clear.
• Direct the free remainder into a finished property, where the completion date is no longer a risk.
• Decide the fate of the invested funds under the law of the country where construction is underway.
If construction is underway in Ukraine, this is a matter of Ukrainian law: the company does not advise on other jurisdictions and works within its own product line. The timeline for a specific construction project can be assessed from the building permit and the developer's track record, not from the project declaration.
How Alliance works
The work is done officially under a contract that sets out the timelines, the amount and the procedure. The company's licenses and documents are publicly available on the website; the offices are in Constanța and Mamaia-Sat.
The roles between the brands are divided.
Armonia selects and shows properties for the client's task.
Alliance is responsible for strategy, the bank, financial monitoring and coordination of all processes; the legal part is handled by specialized professionals, the accounting by audit firms.
After the transaction the property is managed by a management company under an official contract: preparing it for rental, finding and supporting tenants, day-to-day matters with the apartment.
Citizenship does not follow from buying real estate: the ground is documents of origin, not years of owning a property. After three years, if there are legal grounds, the owner can apply for citizenship by descent.
“The right to Romanian citizenship is confirmed by documents — and we take this right all the way to the passport. The decision is made by the authority: the result cannot be guaranteed, but the file can be assembled so that there are no questions about it. The timelines, the amount and the working procedure are in the contract.”
The limits are stated plainly: the bank decides on each banking operation, the migration service on the residence permit. No article gives a guarantee of a positive decision.
What to check before the first payment
There is one thing to check: which right will be registered to you, and on which day. The result of the transaction is described by one line in the land book extract — the owner, and until the last payment, next to it, the entry of the seller's mortgage.
The first step is a free compliance assessment with a written opinion: a recommended bank, a list of documents for the source of funds, an assessment of the origin of capital, the timeline and the purchase structure.
And a straight answer: whether this structure suits you.
The assessment takes place before the deposit, is free and does not oblige you to anything; it may end in a reasoned refusal explaining why — that is also a result of the work. The transaction is carried out under the Romanian Civil Code, and the notary files the entry in the land book; the company's office operates in Constanța, its licenses are publicly available on the website.
When does the buyer become the owner in an installment purchase?
On the day the notarial contract is signed and entered in the land book, not after the last payment. The unpaid balance is secured by the seller's legal mortgage, which is removed after full settlement.
Does a citizen from outside the European Union need permission to buy an apartment?
No. A building is acquired with no restrictions based on citizenship. The restriction concerns land: it is held through a Romanian legal entity, under a reciprocity agreement or as a right of superficies.
Can the transaction be completed remotely?
Yes. You can take part in person, under a power of attorney or through a management company acting under the client's power of attorney. Personal presence in Romania is required once over the entire route — when applying for the residence permit card.
About the author
Sergey Valentinovich Kononov is the head of the consulting company Alliance Consulting (Constanța, Năvodari). Over 30 years of management experience; the company has run a licensed practice in Romania for four years and supports clients from the first consultation to receiving their documents. The company's licenses and documents are publicly available on the website.