There is a commune in Sibiu (Romania), constantly talked about on social media, allegedly having cheap houses for sale. We’re talking about abandoned houses in the Bruiu commune, which the town hall would sell for just 400 up to 600 euros.
The mayor of the commune, Emil Gherghel, says the information is obviously false, but unfortunately, many Romanians are deceived, call the town hall, and are hard to convince that it’s all fake news. People even accuse the town hall employees of keeping the cheap houses for themselves.
In reality, a house in the village of Gherdeal costs 60,000 euros.
"We have even denied it on the town hall's website. We called the respective numbers to try to stop the spread of the information, we tried to contact them on Facebook, but we couldn't reach them.
Currently, in Gherdeal, 90-95% of houses have owners, there are about three or four about which nothing is really known. What I can tell you is that the last house was sold for 60,000 euros, a real estate transaction in Gherdeal (...) With 2,000 lei (400 euros), you can buy an animal, a horse for a cart. There are about 10-12 people who permanently live there. Many owners from Bucharest have bought houses here and are renovating to turn them into vacation homes," said the mayor to the local publication Turnul Sfatului, last year.
Here is the post from the town hall's website: "Following the information that appeared in the public domain and on various social media platforms, the Bruiu Commune Town Hall wishes to inform you that in the village of Gherdeal as well as in the other affiliated villages, there are no properties for sale at low prices (2000 - 3000 lei).
The Bruiu Commune Town Hall does not own properties (houses) to be sold. The properties within the commune are owned by individuals (Saxons or Romanians), and for the last properties put up for sale, prices starting at a minimum of 20,000 euros were requested.
The Bruiu Commune Town Hall does not have information about properties for sale within its territorial area."
But the truth doesn't matter because the false information has surfaced again, and now the mayor is annoyed by people calling and thinking that something is being hidden from them.
"I saw that this fake news was shared again, and they started with emails and calls. It annoys me, but if they call me, I answer and explain. It's worse when they call the town hall and keep the people here from working. They don't even understand that it's false information. It's one thing not to understand, but they also accuse us of keeping them for ourselves. They ask, 'Why aren't the prices 3,000 lei?' There are people who simply don't understand what they are told. They say we want to keep them for ourselves, that's why we tell them there are no houses for 2,000 lei," the mayor complained.