“The West is about to go through a terrible divisive event. The millennials begin to lose their parents. As this process continues, some will inherit consistent assets, while most will not be as well positioned“, Writes Janan Ganesh.
Two faculty friends start with equal chances. In the middle of life, one inherits a house and a land, the other remains with the bank installments. This is the rupture that the Financial Times, Janan Ganesh, describes when it draws attention to the fact that discrepancies are, today, bigger among colleagues of the same age, not between generations.
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“The West is about to go through an extremely polarizing process. The millennials begin to lose their parents. As this process continues, some will inherit consistent assets, whileIt’s the vast majority will not be kind of well -positioned“writes Janan Ganesh, Editorialist Financial Times.
Ganesh points out that we are not only talking about differences between generations, but about increasingly visible gaps between young people of the same age. “People do not go to the world thinking of themselves as members of a generation. The social class, neighborhood, religion or political camp identity weighs much more. The inequities within a generation exceed those between any two.”
In the United States, where the threshold for the succession tax is very high, the assets are transferred almost entirely to the family. In Western and South Europe, the FT editorialist warns, the danger is the formation of a class of crushed heirs, against the backdrop of a stagnant economy.
He ends his text with a reference to the 1960s. “The only protest song against the Vietnam war that does not sound today syrupy is the sound of the creedance Clearwater Revival. He recognizes the crack from within a generation: among the rich or well connected and those who had no escape. Today, the stake is no longer for life,
However, wealth discrepancies are not a novelty. They have always existed. The difference is that today they are much more visible and harder to bear, because they are lived under the magnifying glass of continuous comparison and against the background of the largest wealth transfer in history.
Although Ganesh talks about the West, the phenomenon also applies to us. In Bucharest, an apartment bought in the early 2000s can reach half a million euros today. The children of those who invested then will enter directly into the owners’ class. The others, even with studies and solid careers, remain captive in large rents or in loans for 30 years.
Eurostat statistics show that almost 95% of Romanians have a home, which makes Romania the European country with the highest percentage of owners. Behind this impressive number, the urban reality shows otherwise: one in three Romanians in the cities lives or divides a home that he does not own.
The high percentage of “owners” also includes the inherited houses or old houses in the rural area, many of them uninhabible or sold so that the owners can rent in the city. Basically, economically active young people come to rent, share apartments with parents, or indebted for decades – as confirmed by a study by 2024 by Unlock Market Research for Colliers.
Specifically, 13% of Romanians between 18 and 55 are tenants, and another 18% share a home with parents, relatives or friends. The tendency is more pronounced in the big economic centers – Bucharest, Cluj -Napoca, Iași, Timișoara and Brașov -, where the demand for housing exceeds the offer, and the prices for purchase or rent are the highest.
Frustration, inequity and temptation of renunciation
But beyond statistics, the wealth gaps between young people also have an emotional cost. The psychotherapist and clinical psychologist Gabriela Răileanu draws attention to the fact that the psychological impact of these differences is often ignored: “An increasingly visible phenomenon is not related to the lack of work or ambition, but with the increasingly difficult feeling that some have received everything, and others start from zero. Many young people who do not benefit from financial support, educate, save, carefully plan their steps – but I am in essence, she says.
On this fragile background, says Gabriela Răileanu, a psychological mechanism also appears: social comparison. “Instead of evaluating ourselves by who we are or what we become, we get to measure ourselves by what we have – or what we lack. Digital culture amplifies this gap: we are constantly exposed to messages that convey that personal value is given by what you buy, what brands you wear or what holidays you allow. Constant to seem, not to be. ”
The specialist points out that the impact is not only seen at the individual level, but also in the interpersonal relationships: “In young couples, its inheritance or lack brings a constant imbalance. The one who has less can feel inferior or dependent, and the one who has more can feel an insult pressure:” I offer more, what do you bring in the relationship? “These economic tensions become the silent cause of some breaks.”
The situation is repeated in friends too: “A friend can no longer keep up with the exits, holidays or group plans. He feels insufficient and withdraws. The other, who has stability, does not understand his struggle, not from bad will, but because the privilege, no matter how discreet, isolate.”
The conclusion of Gabriele Răileanu is clear: “We need a new form of solidarity between young people. One that does not ignore the differences, but recognizes them with empathy. If the system comes to reward the luck of the inheritance more than work, we lose not only material comfort, but also collective confidence – the belief that we can build something together, not to each other.”
Beyond the emotional dimension, the gaps are also amplified by the fiscal framework.
Romania, inheritance paradise
“Romania has one of the most friendly tax regimes for inheritance in Europe”explains lawyer Emil Toma for Adevărul. “According to the Fiscal Code and GEO 80/2013, if the succession is completed within two years from death, the tax on the transfer of real estate is zero. The heirs pay only the notarial costs and those for the land book, and these are at a bearable level.”
According to the same legal framework, the exceeding of the term of two years attracts a tax of 1% on the value of the estate succession. In addition, Toma shows that by Law no. 268/2024, stamp court fees for judicial sharing have been significantly reduced: “We are talking about a decrease from 5% to about 0.5% of the value of movable or immovable property. It is a change that stimulates access to the successor procedures carried out by the courts, especially where the heirs fail to understand themselves.”
The lawyer compares the situation in Romania with that of other states. “In France inheritance taxes are between 5% and 45%, in Germany between 7% and 50%, and in the United Kingdom the inheritances are taxed with 40% for assets of over 325,000 pounds. In the United States, a federal tax is added to 40% for inheritance over 13.61 million. inheritance. ”
In fact, Toma emphasizes that the gentle tax regime will directly influence how wealth is transferred between generations. “We will see more and more major differences between young people, depending on what I inherit. It is a context in which fiscal legislation plays a decisive role: it facilitates the full transfer of heritage, without the state withholding significant quotas, as is happening in the West.”
For his part, the lawyer Ruxandra Vișoiu adds that, beyond taxes, the practice shows other challenges. “In us, the succession debates are made exclusively to the notary. If you do not complete the procedure within two years, the state charges a tax of 1% of the value of real estate. It is a very small tax compared to other European states and encourages the heirs to solve their situation quickly.”
It also draws attention to the difficulties encountered in cases with Diaspora heirs: “I have seen very often families who fail to end their successions due to the relatives abroad. The procedure becomes heavy, it is necessary to prove and even years are lost.
The lawyer also says that he sees two parallel Romanians daily: young people who take huge credits immediately after the first salaries and live with the fear of the Credit Bureau, and young people who enter the owners’ class because they have inherited apartments and land. Therefore, not the tax of 1% is the stake, but the gap between rates and inheritance. And the real question is not the one who receives the key at the house, but as much as a generation resists to believe in the idea that work is worth more than luck.
