How big the market is
For 2025, 4,558 real estate companies filed financial statements, with 13,282 employees and sales revenue of 10.7 billion lei. A year earlier there were 4,277 companies, and sales have risen from 8.5 billion. Almost 1,200 of them reported no sales at all in 2025.
Demand comes from construction. In 2025, 7,500 new homes were completed, against 4,800 in 2024, with a total floor area of 625,700 square metres. More than two thirds of that area, 435,500 square metres, is in Chișinău, compared with 223,500 in 2024. Each of these homes will be sold, may be valued or let, and stands in a block that needs managing.
The real estate agents law: the certificate, the register and the agreement
Law no. 40/2026 on the activity of real estate agents applies from 23 January 2027 to anyone who brokers real estate transactions, whether an individual or a legal person. It separates two roles. The real estate agent is the person: a certified individual. The real estate agency is the business — an SRL or a sole trader (întreprindere individuală) — and it works through certified agents. Regulation, certification and the register all sit with the Agency for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre.
The agent is certified, the agency notifies
For the real estate agent certificate you need higher or technical vocational education and a certificate of professional competence, which you obtain after an initial training programme in real estate brokerage at an accredited institution. The cadastre agency decides within five working days of a complete application. The certificate is free, valid for five years and renewed on proof of continuing training. Its number can appear in listings and correspondence, and the “Real Estate Agents” module is public, so clients can check at any time whether the agent they are dealing with is certified.
The real estate agency, for its part, notifies the Agency for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre electronically and sends in the list of agents who work for it. Agents can be employees or work under a services contract, but they must be certified. When an agent leaves, another joins or a certificate expires, the data in the module must be updated within five working days. The agency is liable for its agents.
The agreement: in writing, 12 months at most, exclusivity for six at most
The brokerage agreement must be in writing or it is void. The law sets its minimum content: the parties, the services, the property, the term, the fee and how it is paid, rights and obligations, termination and dispute resolution. The maximum term is 12 months. Exclusivity, where agreed, cannot exceed six months. Contractual penalties are capped too: 0.1% a day and no more than 10% of the contract value.
Before signing, the agent gives the client pre-contractual information free of charge. An agent who represents both sides of the same transaction needs the written consent of both. And if the agreement ends without a transaction for reasons that have nothing to do with the client, the agent refunds the part of the fee that corresponds to services not provided.
Every agreement is reported
The agent reports every brokerage agreement within 15 working days through the “Real Estate Agents” module: the property with its cadastral number, the parties, the value and the commission received. Agreements are kept for at least six years. Having no written agreement carries a fine of 300 to 600 conventional units for the company, that is, between 15,000 and 30,000 lei, and failing to report one carries 100–200 conventional units, again for the company.
Anyone who was already brokering when the law comes into force has 12 months, until 23 January 2028, to obtain the training certificate and the agent certificate. Agreements entered into before 23 January 2027 run their course under the old rules.
Commission under the Civil Code
The basic rules on commission are not in the new law but in the Civil Code, and they are stricter than many agents think. Commission is due only if the transaction was concluded thanks to the agent. If the transaction depends on a condition, such as the loan being approved, commission can be claimed only once the condition is met. An advance on commission is prohibited, and a clause that would allow one is void.
An agent earns no commission if the property is their own. In residential letting, the agent cannot charge anything for simply renewing an existing lease, nor for a home they manage themselves. The exception is homes let to tourists, to which these rules do not apply.
Money laundering: the agency is a reporting entity
Real estate agents are on the list of reporting entities in the anti-money laundering law and are supervised by the Office for Prevention and Fight against Money Laundering. For lettings, the obligations apply only to transactions with a monthly rent above 200,000 lei. For sales, the law sets no threshold.
In practice, the agency identifies its clients and their beneficial owners. It carries out a risk assessment of its own line of business, set down in a report that a designated member of management approves and that is updated every year. And it has an internal programme with written procedures and named people responsible for it. Cash transactions of 200,000 lei or more, whether in one operation or in several linked operations within a month, are reported by the 5th of the following month. Records are kept for five years.
From 13 August 2026, the people responsible for compliance also need a training certificate in the field, renewed at least once every three years. If it is missing, the company is given no more than three months to comply.
The valuer signs, the firm is liable
Real estate valuation sits in the same CAEM class as brokerage, 68.31, but is governed by a different law. The work is done by a valuation firm, under contract. A valuation report is mandatory: it is signed by both the certified valuer and the head of the firm, has a copy of the valuer’s certificate attached and is kept for five years. If the report is falsified or the valuer was not independent, the firm makes good the loss. Liability insurance is mandatory only if the contract requires it.
Every quarter, valuers report the prices from their reports, through the firm, to the Real Estate Price Register of the Agency for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre. The same system will host the real estate agents module, so from 2027 brokerage and valuation come under the same authority.
Valuing securities is a different profession: only a legal person registered with the National Commission for Financial Markets may do it, with a valuer qualified by the Commission.
Managing apartment blocks
The condominium law allows an owners’ association to contract out management to a company. If the general meeting so decides, the company can also act as the association’s administrator, but in that case none of its employees can be appointed administrator. In residential blocks, contract clauses that put the association or the owners at a disadvantage are void.
Unless the contract says otherwise, the company has a long list of duties: it monitors the technical condition of the block and flags urgent work, draws up the annual and long-term maintenance and repair plan, organises and supervises the work, keeps the association’s accounts and prepares its financial statements, pursues owners’ arrears, concludes the utility contracts and deals with owners’ complaints and requests. At least three days before the contract ends, it hands over all the documents.
For a new company, one way in is the competition organised by the town hall. If an association has been without an administrator for more than a month, any owner can ask the mayor to appoint a management company through a competition and to sign the contract on the association’s behalf.
For brokerage, an SRL or a sole trader. The real estate agents law allows both to act as agencies, and the agents work through them, with the certificate in their own name. For valuation, the law also accepts an individual registered as an entrepreneur, but the valuation report requires the stamp and signature of the head of a valuation firm. For letting, management and sales, an SRL, for the limited liability.
The independent entrepreneur regime is not an option: no class in division 68 appears on its list of activities. An individual who lets a flat without being registered as an entrepreneur falls under a separate regime, with a tax of 7% of the monthly rent, described on the hotels and accommodation page. If the company builds to sell, the developer’s rules are on the construction company page.
We handle the choice of CAEM codes, the articles of association, the filing at the Public Services Agency and the opening of the bank account. For a real estate agency, we also prepare the notification to the Agency for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre and the documents the anti-money laundering law requires: the risk assessment report, the internal programme and the reporting procedures. We can take over the company’s accounting from the first month. What each service includes is set out on the corporate services page.
