- One in three households does not have a bathroom
BCR - the Housing Bank (BCR BpL) decided to support the activities of EFdeN (Romania’s First Ever Welfare Research Centre (Primul Centru de Cercetare a Condiţiilor de Confort), since, according to the National Statistics Institute, 34% of the rural households do not have a bathroom and - in the case of urban dwellings - the percentage is of 8.5%, while 32% have no indoor bathroom/shower. At the same time, throughout the entire country, about 16% of the households are faced with serious housing issues, such as deterioration, water infiltration, leakage of the sewer and water systems, insufficient lighting.
Romania’s ever Welfare Research Center is “made by EFdeN”. A team formed of over 30 students, from various academic environments, starting from the civil engineering university, to architecture, communication or management, who meet in order to exchange views and experiences. Together they have managed to build a sustainable solar house that works fully on electricity, and that is safe and comfortable, with a low CO2 footprint; this house produces more power than it consumes and uses the most environment-friendly materials.
„EFdeN would like to draw attention upon the need to focus society on sustainability and accountability and on compliance with the comfort and environment protection conditions. Whatever we speak of, either research projects applied to housing or empiric research, the team wants EFdeN 4C to be the place where young researchers meet the academic environment, the company representatives, the condominium associations and the representatives of the public authorities, in order to find solutions together and have better buildings. Our aim to enhance the efficiency of research programmes in the field of civil engineering, comfort and safety of a dwelling, while insisting on the quality and sustainability of the materials, and on complying with the indoor comfort parameters and healthcare”, said the manger of EFdeN, Mr. Mihai Toader-Pasti.
Of the overall 7.5 million households in Romania, about 40% of the houses and apartment buildings in the rural environment need repair works; 52% of the repair works are considered to be urgent, according to a study made by IRSOP survey institute, done for BCR Banca pentru Locuinte (BCR BpL).
“The first investment priority of about 600,000 families in Romania is to improve their housing comfort in a country that has EU’s oldest housing stock - according to Eurostat. In spite of all that, the average income of Romanians account for half of what a Czech, Slovak or Croat person would pocket, while their cost of construction materials is relatively similar to what a Romanian is supposed to pay”, Lucian Anghel, the president of BCR BpL, also said.
According to a study made by IRSOP survey institute, about 68% of the respondents wanted to start some house improvement project within the following 5 years, while 37% plan to do so within the next 12 months.
The most frequent housing improvement plans for the next 5 years involve rehabilitating the dwelling (29%), buying a new one (23%), buying a house in the country (23%), home insulation (23%), repair works on the water and sewer systems or electricity systems (21%), buying an individual heating plant (16%), doing various works on roofs or terraces (15%), building a house from scratch (13%), repairing the support framework (11%), buying land (9%), expanding the house (8%).
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Banca Comercială Română (BCR), a member of Erste Group, is the most important financial group in Romania, providing universal banking operations (retail, corporate & investment banking, treasury and capital markets), and covering specialty companies working on the leasing market, private pensions and housing banks. BCR is Romania’s No. 1 bank in terms of asset value (over 14,4 €bn.), in terms of client base and in terms of savings and crediting. BCR is also Romania’s most important financial brand, judging by the client trust rate and by the number of persons who consider that BCR is their main banking partner.
BCR uses a network of 22 corporate business centres and 23 mobile offices devoted to corporate clients, and 510 retails units located in most communities inhabited by at least 10,000 citizens in order to provide a full range of financial products and services. BCR is Romania’s No. 1 bank running on the banking transactions market, since BCR customers have the largest ATM network at their disposal – over 2,000 ATMs and 13,500 POS terminals enabling customers to use their cards for shopping purposes, as well as the complete Internet banking, mobile banking, phone-banking and e-commerce services.
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Erste Group is one of the main suppliers of financial services in Eastern European Union. About 46,500 bank officers working in 2,800 branches in seven countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia) assist 16.2 mn. customers. Erste Group reported a total asset pool worth €202,6 bn. and a 56.1% cost-to-income ratio at the end of Q1 of 2015. First-ranking common equity index (Basel 3 implemented partially) has improved to 10.2%.
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BCR – External Communication
Cezar Marin, e-mail: cezar.marin@bcr.ro
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