Until 1990, Romania had been a communist country. After the fall of the former regime, one of the earliest economic enterprises was the sale of land, both in urban and rural areas. Whoever had savings or had the chance to quickly make enough capital to invest hit the jack pot, because that was the right moment for a perfect, simple business: buy cheap and (later) sell expensive. It was the beginning of a real estate bubble which only blew up in 2008, one year after Romania joined the European Union. The market had slowly recovered since 2011 and the sales went on, with an impetus in the rural areas, due to the favorable prospects of agricultural investments, but also due to the growing number of real estate speculators.
A reflection of this evolution lies today in various forms of advertisement for land sales, which had been left by people during the past years on yard fences or close to the roads: from hand written specifications to printed fonts and colors, from improvised metal boards to dedicated advertising structures, from pricing in Lei (the local currency) to pricing in Euros, from Romanian buyers to foreign investors.
Phase 1 – primitive advertising: the owners were simply placing an improvised wooden or metal board to announce their intention of selling. Scratching a phone number and a few words was enough. The one from the picture literally says “I sell”, without even mentioning what exactly is for sale, presumably land, no details in regard to acres or price. These were to be negotiated by direct talks.Phase 2 – a little progress: the metal board was still highly valued, as it was the most reliable: if nailed or tied with a wire, the more difficult for the competition to rip it off. The written text comes with improvements, both in form and content. The potential buyers are now being told that this is indeed land for sale and few specifications are included. In addition, efforts are being made to have the fonts more visible and better looking. Nevertheless, the board is still on the fence.
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Phase 3 – first real effort: in the absence of a fence, the seller had to make a structure to place the advertisement. The blue large fonts aim to inspire a reliable, but also a friendly offer. The whole thing stirs the potential buyer to start building a house. No specifications though. Every evolution comes with an involution.Phase 4 – early speculators: for the first time, the advertisement specifies that the land can be further portioned. The text is clearly printed, also aims to inspire professionalism. The black background is quite unfortunate, it looks rather funeral. Notice those big-size six drawing pins, most probably Chinese made.
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Phase 5 – first signs of change: the Euro overcomes the local currency. The initial surface of land had been turned into smaller parcels and sold piece by piece. It’s no longer the time to sell large parcels. The advertisements become more professional which at this stage means more colored and printing on a plastic foil. Notice the handwritten variations of the land surface and price.Phase 6 – early foreign investors: initially, the advertisement was only in Romanian (on plastic foil), but the seller had to adapt to the new market conditions, by adding a second announcement in English (printed on paper), placed higher to be more visible. It seems that red background and blue letters are most fashionable.
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Phase 7 – involvement of the real estate agencies: advertising in English overcomes Romanian, by the size of the letters and the given priority. There are even two phone numbers to call and the solid metal structure becomes a standard. This is a real investment in advertising, but worth it as the price for land sales went much higher. Besides, it’s better to catch a bigger fish – a foreign buyer.
