It's cheaper to live in the luxurious building Turning Torso than in a communist block of flats from Bucharest.

A 45 square meters studio with a spacious living and a matching kitchen in the luxurious building Turning Torso, from the Swedish town Malmö, is rented at the same prices as in the Drumul Taberei neighborhood from Bucharest. Even the comparison between the two residential buildings freshly built shows that is cheaper to live in Sweden.

A studio in the Turning Torso is 700 euro per month will all services included, while our agencies are renting 38 square meters studios in the former working neighborhood Drumul Taberei from Bucharest with 550-600 and even 700 euro.

700 euro is the monthly rent for a studio in the luxurious building Turning Torso

"If you have rents as large as those from here means that you are encountering a serious crisis. This is a very luxurious building, and the rent includes a series of services, like video surveillance, doorman and garage", explains the administrator of the Turning Torso building.

The administrator of the building owned by the Swedish group HSB: "If you have rents as large as for the Turning Torso, it is certain that you are living a serious crisis. This is a luxury building, not everybody affords to live here."

"It's 700 euro because it has improvements and new furniture, it's at the third floor, the most wanted, and at only 5 minutes from the mall", motivates a real estate agent from Bucharest the high price of a home from the Capital.

At the same time, the medium wage in Sweden is of 2.500 euro, while a Romanian salary doesn't pass 300 euro per month.

The situation doesn't differ from the new residential buildings: the square meter of a fancy apartment is sold with 900 euro in Sweden, an in Romania nothing is under 1.000 euro, even 1.200 euro in Bucharest. The most expensive apartments are outside Europe, in Hong Kong, Tokio and New York.

300 persons on the waiting list

What is so special at the turning torso from Malmo, at the Swedish border with Denmark? The shape of the building is formed by 9 cubes, with triangular cuts, which spin around a central axis. It's Europe's second highest apartment building (190 meters), designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, Dali's disciple, and built by the Swedish real estate group HSB. The tower, visible from Copenhagen, has 54 floors, 14 of them are rented by companies, the rest being apartments.

The first inhabitants moved in the building at the start of November 2005, and 300 persons are waiting to rent a place here. "With a lot of luck, you wait a year", says the administrator.

The main reason for the tower's construction was that Malmo needed a symbol, and the shape of the building belongs to the constructor's president. Then, it become the most important part of the developing plan of the Oresund Port, near the bridge which connects Sweden to Denmark.

The high demand is the problem

Romania is facing a deficit in the popular and cheap home, which doesn't exists but in the form of the satellite-town form, where the demand is extremely high, according to th real estate analyst Artur Silvestri. he underlined that the offer is "expensive and small, unsatisfactory, and the new projects are almost missing and, in consequence, will have to be invented".

CONSTRUCTION With a view to the Oresund Bridge

The apartments from the Turning Torso have a splendid view to the Oresund Bridge, an engineering wonder wilch connects Sweden to Denmark, and to the Baltic Sea beach. The Oresund Bridge, the world's second longest bridge, after the recently opened 36 kilometers long bridge from Beijing, makes the 16 kilometers link between the Danish city Helsingor, with Hamlet's famous castle, and the Swedish town Malmo, radically changing the image of Scandinavia. The bridge was opened in the year 2000. The crossing toll is of 260 Danish coronas, almost 34 euro.