This year for acquisition of apartments in cities it was spent 9% more money
The Ober-Haus Lithuanian apartment price index (OHBI), which records changes in apartment prices in the five major Lithuanian cities (Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys), increased by 0.3% in July 2018. The annual apartment price growth in the major cities of Lithuania was 2.9% (the annual apartment price growth in June 2018 was 3.1%).
In July 2018 apartment prices in the capital grew 0.2% with the average price per square meter reaching EUR 1,481 (+2 EUR/sqm). Since the last lowest price level recorded in May 2010 prices have increased by 28.3% (+327 EUR/sqm). Apartment prices in Kaunas, Šiauliai and Panevėžys in July grew by 0.3%, 0.8% and 1.6% respectively with the average price per square meter reaching EUR 1,052 (+4 EUR/sqm), EUR 638 (+5 Eur/sqm) and EUR 613 (+10 EUR/sqm). In Klaipėda no price change was recorded and average apartment price remained the same as in June 2018 – EUR 1,057.
In the past 12 months, the prices of apartments grew in all major cities: 8.4% in Panevėžys, 5.3% in Šiauliai, 4.4 in Kaunas, 2.6% in Klaipėda and 1.9% in Vilnius.
“Positive indicators continue to be recorded in the segment of city apartments this year. Despite the different rate of change of the apartment prices in particular cities of the country in principle a further rise of their sales prices can be observed everywhere. While the annual growth of the apartment sales prices in the capital has decreased since the beginning of 2017, a stable growth in the remaining cities of the country and somewhere a more rapid one has been observed,” – said Raimondas Reginis, Ober-Haus Market Research Manager for the Baltics.
Meanwhile the amount of money spent for the acquisition of apartments in sufficient detail shows not only general quantitative, but also qualitative changes in the specific cities of the country. According to the data of the State Enterprise Centre of Registers during the first seven months of this year apartments for almost EUR 750 million have been acquired in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys or for 9% more than during the same period last year.
The biggest change during this period was recorded in Kaunas city and Vilnius city municipalities, where respectively 15% and 10% more money was spent. It is not surprising as the new housing supply in these cities was growing mostly and it increased the total amount of money spent in the market too. It means that the growth of the amount of money spent for the acquisition of apartments has been recorded not only due to bigger sales volumes (during January-July months of 2018 in Vilnius it was recorded 7% and in Kaunas 5% more apartment sales transactions than during the same period last year) or their rising prices, but also due to the increasing part of new apartments in the total number of transactions and changing qualitative parameters of new housing.
During the first seven months of this year it was spent 4% more money for the acquisition of apartments in Šiauliai and Panevėžys and in Klaipėda 2% reduction was recorded. Still slack development of new housing in these cities and at the same time especially small portion of new housing in the total number of transactions determine much more modest changes of the amounts of money compared to Vilnius and Kaunas this year. As in 2018 smaller number of apartment sales transactions was registered in these cities (during January-July months of 2018 in Klaipėda and Šiauliai it was recorded 8% and in Panevėžys 3% less apartment sales transactions than during the same period last year), therefore the total growth of the amount of money spent in Šiauliai and Panevėžys in principle was determined only by the more rapidly increasing apartment prices. Meanwhile in Klaipėda the rise of prices during the year was much slower and could not compensate the number of apartment sales transactions which reduced by 8%. Therefore in the seaport a smaller amount of money in the apartment segment has been recorded this year.
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