9% VAT on First Homes Survives, But Only for Old Pre-Sale Agreements: Conditions and Deadlines Until 30 September 2026

The 9% VAT rate for buying a first home has not disappeared entirely, but it now applies to a far narrower group of buyers. Law no. 161/2026 on certain fiscal-budgetary measures, promulgated by Decree no. 712/2026 and published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 642 of 4 August 2026, effectively extends the reduced-rate benefit only to people who, before 1 August 2025, already had a firm purchase commitment with a deposit paid. The measure comes shortly after home purchases became subject, as of 1 August 2026, to the standard VAT rate as a general rule, without the exception that modest-home buyers previously enjoyed.

In practice, the law works as a transitional clause: it does not reopen the reduced rate for new buyers, but protects those who, in mid-2025, were already in the middle of a purchase process, so they are not caught off guard by the change in VAT treatment at the end of the transaction.

What it changes in practice

An individual (alone or together with another individual or several individuals) can buy, between the law’s entry into force and 30 September 2026 inclusive, a single home at the reduced 9% VAT rate, provided four conditions are met simultaneously: the home has a usable floor area of at most 120 sqm (excluding outbuildings) and a value, including the land, of no more than 600,000 lei excluding VAT; the home can actually be lived in at delivery, and delivery cannot take place later than 30 September 2026; the buyer has not already benefited from the reduced rate for another home since 1 January 2023; and, the key condition, the buyer signed, by 1 August 2025, a pre-sale agreement or other legal instrument under which a deposit was paid for that specific home.

For those who signed the pre-sale agreement precisely between 3 and 31 July 2025, the law additionally requires proof that they paid, in full, by 31 July 2025, a deposit of at least 20% of the home’s value excluding VAT. All this information is verified through the “Register of Home Purchases with Reduced VAT Rate,” kept under the Fiscal Code, and public notaries are legally required to consult it before authenticating the sale deed: if the requirements are not met, the notary authenticates the deed only at the standard VAT rate.

The same 9% rate, under the same pre-sale-agreement condition dated by 1 August 2025, also applies until 1 October 2026 to buildings that municipalities purchase in order to allocate them, at subsidized rent, to families who cannot afford housing on the open market.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

• The reduced rate is no longer the general rule: as of 1 August 2026, buying a modest home (under 120 sqm and 600,000 lei) automatically falls under the standard VAT rate, except for the strict exception introduced now.
• Access depends on a prior commitment: it no longer matters whether the floor area and price fit within the caps, if the pre-sale agreement with a deposit was not signed by 1 August 2025, the 9% rate no longer applies.
• A fixed delivery deadline: the home must be handed over, ready to live in, by 30 September 2026 inclusive, otherwise the transaction falls outside the scope of the law.
• A refund mechanism is introduced: anyone who already paid the standard rate for an eligible home, between 1 August 2026 and the law’s entry into force, can claim the difference back from ANAF, a procedure that did not previously exist.
• Notaries receive explicit verification duties: checking the register and recording in the authentic deed the mentions confirming that the conditions were met become mandatory steps, not optional ones.

Advantages and disadvantages

Practical advice

Frequently asked questions