This post was automatically translated into English
Developers started 2015 with a record supply of apartments in Vilnius, the highest since 2009. Last year, buyers were offered as many as 4,500 new apartments. According to data from the company “Eika”, real estate developers are currently offering about 3,600 new apartments in Vilnius, which is 77% more than at the beginning of 2014.
Developers started 2015 with a record supply of apartments in Vilnius, which has not been seen since 2009. Last year, buyers were offered as many as 4,500 new apartments. According to data from the company Eika, real estate developers are currently offering about 3,600 new apartments in Vilnius, which is 77% more than at the beginning of 2014.
“During 2014, the supply increased the most in the prestigious class – even 3.5 times. In this segment, there has been a significant lack of new projects for the last few years, so investors’ attention was directed specifically to prestigious class housing. In the middle class, the supply increased 2 times over the year – from 770 apartments to 1,470 apartments. In the economy class, the growth was the lowest – 51%, the supply increased to 1,760 apartments,” – calculates Tomas Žiaugra, the head of development projects at Eika. Currently, only one in nine apartments in the economy and middle classes is purchased, while in the prestigious class, although the supply has increased significantly, as many as every fourth apartment under construction is purchased.
At the beginning of 2015, while buyers are trying to get used to the introduced euro, real estate developers are not sleeping. “During the first months of 2015, several larger projects of the middle and prestigious class should supplement the supply, so it is likely that by the middle of the year we will have over 4,000 new apartments in Vilnius,” predicts the head of development projects at Eika.
In 2014, real estate developers in Vilnius sold about 2,900 new apartments, which is 24% more than in the previous year. Meanwhile, the secondary housing market grew less – according to preliminary data from the Center of Registers, sales in Vilnius last year increased by only 6%, with about 8,450 apartment sales transactions concluded.
According to T. Žiaugra, even the most optimistic forecasts for 2014 were exceeded in the first half of the year, when as much as 62% of all sales for the year took place. “Buyers bought mostly with their own funds and in completed or nearing completion of construction projects. In the second half of the year, new housing sales returned to the level of 2013, when about 180-200 apartments were sold per month,” says the representative of “Eika”.
Last year, 55% of new apartment sales were economy-class apartments. The number of transactions in this class increased by 16% over the year. Currently, the average price per square meter of an economy-class apartment is 1,271 euros (4,390 litas), which is 3% more than at the beginning of 2014. About 38% of new apartments sold in Vilnius were middle-class. In 2014, 25% more apartments of this class were sold than in previous years. Middle-class apartments, whose average price is currently about 1,694 euros (5,850 litas) per square meter, increased in price by only 1% in 2014.
As many as 200 prestigious apartments were sold during the year, i.e. 2.5 times more than in 2013. Sales of luxury new-build apartments last year reached as much as 7% of the market share. The price of apartments in this class increased by 12% during the year, to 2595 EUR/sq m (8960 LTL/sq m). “For several years in a row we have been talking about the insufficient supply of prestigious apartments and the accumulated demand in Vilnius. With the emergence of new projects, this demand has finally been satisfied,” notes T. Žiaugra.
According to data from the company “Eika”, in 2014 the average price of new construction apartments in Vilnius increased by 8.6% and currently reaches 1581 Eur/sq m (5460 Lt/sq m). The greatest influence on the increase in the average price per square meter in 2014 was the growth of demand and supply in the prestigious segment, where investments by real estate developers increased the most.
“Summing up 2014, it is worth noting that the buyer activity that shook the market at the beginning of the year woke up newcomers and veterans of the real estate market, who added a record number of new apartments to the market. However, in the second half of the year, sales in the primary market, which decreased or simply returned to their previous volumes, made many market participants worried. The supply train that has started to accelerate will also drag about 4,000 new apartments in 2015, and real estate developers will have to use ingenuity and prepare for a competitive battle,” predicts T.Žiaugra, development project manager at Eika.
About the Eika group of companies
Founded in 1992, the company “Eika” is one of the largest real estate development and construction groups in Lithuania. The group of companies consists of: UAB “Eika” – a leader in the real estate market, valued for its innovation, reliability and responsibility; UAB “Eikos statyba” – a construction company with extensive experience in the construction and renovation of administrative, public, commercial, industrial and residential buildings.
More information:
Tomas Žiaugra
Development Project Manager
Phone: +370 5 2045 810
Fax: +370 5 2514 256
Email: [email protected]