Cost of Living in Chisinau

@roberto , I agree with you in part. However, even I am Romanian I cannot get these prices for rent or services. There is a premium for anyone , subjective and not based on law or market prices , who is a foreigner, expat, emigrated Romanian or Moldovan. While in Theory prices are cheap for the local who has been there all their life it is definitely not these prices for others. Consider that Italy may be 200 euro to fix a car part but it's 200 for everyone, foreigner or local. In Romania, Russia , Belarus , ukraine , Moldova , etc. it's 2 prices. And its a huge difference. Still even with the markup it's still probably cheaper than the 200 euro in italy. However my observation is short term rents are not much less than Spain or Italy and it's moldova! As exotic as it is , if I had to pay the same rent in Spain of course I choose Spain 100 percent of the time. Romanians rip off their own as well as foreigners so unless you can pretend to pass for a local for 30 years there good luck getting so called local prices. I went to a wine bar in chisinau and spoke Romanian with an accent. He switched to English and charged me 4x the local rate. So you know there is much price scamming going on. That's why few decide to stay unless they can somehow get anywhere near the local prices. Even 30 percent above local would be an achievement but often it's more like 50 to 200 percent above local price for expat, repat, foreigner or even local who looks like he has some money.

To Alex# Deep socialism as you call it? Over 36 years since the Soviet Union ruled.Chisinau once had beautiful fountains falling apart the main hotel in shambles everything actually throughout Moldova is.After a 36 plus year separation from the Soviet Union Moldova has shown absolutely no progress whatsoever.

# Hans Moldova will need to sell something more substantial than just potatoes to stimulate the severely lacking economy over the last 30 plus years.

I passed through Chisinau briefly changing trains.The capital is a joke.Broken down buildings and streets drunks and hookers everywhere and filth.As I crossed Moldova by train I could see why it's the least visited place for tourists.