Giving Cluj a Facelift, one tax at a time!

Anyone visiting Cluj over the past couple of years has likely seen a lot of renovation activity taking place on a number of buildings around the city, and it’s no coincidence.

From the beginning of 2016, the City Hall carried out extensive inspections of the buildings which were showing degraded facades. Changes to the taxes were made, for buildings which were deemed as neglected or in poor condition. The owners of these properties saw a tax increase of 500% and Cluj-Napoca Mayor, Emil Boc, has informed that this will continue in 2020.

So far, 535 buildings were renovated and there are currently 88 other buildings undergoing renovations at the time of this publication.

One of the most recognisable and probably most welcomed renovations was that of the old Hotel Continental, located directly in the centre of the city.

Quick Fact: Hotel Continental was constructed on the site of the “National Hotel”, a simple single-storey building, which was demolished in 1894. Then, under the guidance of architect Lajos Pákey, construction began on what was originally named “New York Hotel”, before later being renamed Hotel Continental. In 2005, due to failing to meet modern standards, the hotel was closed and the building was sold, with plans to develop a mall / hotel, however, the project never took place and the building fell into ruin before the recent renovation, costing over €3.4m.

Below is a gallery of some of the buildings which have been renovated as a result of the tax changes. These images were published via Emil Boc – Facebook.