deancow and GentlemanX The difference between UK/Canada vs Romania is this: rent is very high compared to minimum salary. And this has 3 causes:
- 80% or so of people own their houses. A law from '90s gave them acces to very cheap prices to places rented from the state. ('89 regime changed)
-in 2008 era, many people got loans for apartments, artificially increasing prices.
-economic problems made cities very attractive to unemployed people. Further pushing rents up, thus making loans attractive again.
If, for some reason you land a minimum pay job and you want to live, you must find immediately someone to live with. Otherwise you can't afford to live. Rent is killing you even in the shi/tiest places. (80% of salary)