Trends of residential RE inVilnius – economic and cost-efficient
November 12, 2013. Vilnius. Today at the brokers
forum, organized by the Lithuanian
Association of Real Estate Agencies (LNTAA), Arnoldas Antanavičius, the Manager of Consultations and
Analysis Department of Inreal Valdymas, stated that the year 2013 has made essential changes
in the strategies of many real estate (RE) developers of the country. Sensitively
responding to the changing needs of housing purchasers, the developers
successfully avoided problems with project realization. In the three quarters
of 2013, 981 economic class apartments and 673 mid-class apartments were sold,
i.e. respectively by 77 and 92 percent more than in the corresponding period of
the previous year. Meanwhile the sales of prestige class apartments decreased
by 31 percent.
In the three quarters of 2013, the development and sales of 32 new
apartment house projects were launched in Vilnius. In comparison with the
corresponding period in 2012, it is possible to state that the geography of
residential RE project development has change little, because the most popular
micro-regions for the development have remained the same: Pašilaičiai,
Santariškės, Pilaitė. On the other hand, according to Inreal analysts, contrary
to 2012, this year the development of new projects was more active in the
centre and the southern part of the city.
“Analysing the relation of demand and supply in
different micro-regions it becomes obvious that the situation in the majority
of them is much more favourable to developers than in the previous year”, – stated
A. Antanavičius – “If Naujamiestis had been the only micro-region, where the
amount of new construction apartments exceeded the supply, for nine months of
2012, then this year the trend is observed in almost all micro-regions. Thus,
in many cases the developers do not face with realization problems, and one can
assume that today housing segment investors offer housing to potential
purchasers, corresponding to their needs”.
Analysing each segment separately, in three quarters of 2013 the
liquidity of economic and mid-class reached almost 7 percent, i.e. by 2.3
percent more than in the corresponding period in 2012. This rate means that 15
months would be sufficient to sell out the existing supply in these classes.
Meanwhile the liquidity of prestige class decreased to 4.6 percent, or it will
require almost 22 months in order to be sold out.
According to A. Antanavičius, the existing sale trends
in the market promote developers to invest into economic and mid-class projects
more. The statistics of the last quarter of 2013 show that the economic class
projects in Vilnius made up almost two thirds of the whole new supply. More
that a third is represented by mid-class apartments, while the development of
prestige class projects was minimal.
Analysing
housing projects under the construction type, it is clear that low-rise
construction projects are being developed increasingly less., and this segment
is losing ground to the multi-storey construction projects. Although two years ago low-rise RE projects had been particularly
popular and was characterised by higher liquidity rate than the multi-storey
construction segment, today the liquidity rate is higher in the latter. Such
trend can be reasoned by changed structure of demand – there are more economic
class purchasers in the market, purchasing apartments in multi-storey
construction segment, because low-rise construction segment is related to
higher class housing. The data of the last quarter of 2013 show that the
developers have further reduced investments in low-rise construction segment.
Regardless of the fact that economic class segment is dominating in Vilnius
new construction housing market, higher energy efficiency class projects are
being built increasingly more. This is one of the essential rates in the eyes
of potential purchasers. This is confirmed bythe liquidityrates.
The ongoing changes in Vilnius RE market reflect in price statistics. “Although in 2013 the average price in
different segments has increased: in
the economic segment – by about 1 percent, in the mid-class segment by about 7
percent, and in the prestige class – by about 3 percent, the common average
price of new construction apartment is less about 8 percent than a year ago,
i.e. this year an average purchaser bought an apartment, which cost about LTL
287,000”, – stated A. Antanavičius. Meanwhile last year the price was about
LTL 312,000. The analyst explains such decrease in average price by the
increased number of purchasers of economic class housing in the market, who
bought cheaper and smaller apartments. The average area of an apartment, which
was bought, has decreased from 60 sq. m. to 58 sq. m., and the average price
per square meter has decreased from LTL 5,200 to LTL 4,930. The fact, that this
year Vilnius new construction apartment market has more economic class
purchasers, is also confirmed by the fact that about 80 percent of transactions
do not exceed LTL 325,000 Lt for an apartment. There were 70 percent of
equivalent transactions made in the corresponding period of 2012.
In conclusion, it is possible to state that today economic and
cost-efficient housing is dominating in Vilnius residential market.
ABOUT INREAL GROUP
Inreal group provides probably the widest spectrum of services in Lithuania, related to real estate services. The group consists of JSC “Inreal Valdymas” (Inreal Management), JSC “Inreal” and JSC “Inreal GEO”. Inreal group companies belong to SC “Invalda privatus kapitalas”.
90 employees are currently working in Inreal group; mediations in
lease or sale of 550 thousand sq. m. of commercial premises; the value
of asset, evaluated per year, is above 2 milliard Litas. Company offices
or representations are operating in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda,
Šiauliai, Mažeikiai, Alytus, Plungė and Utena. Currently JSC “Inreal
Valdymas” develops two real estate projects: houses in Nida “Kopų vetrunges” (“Dunes weathervanes”) and apartments and comercial premises in Klaipeda oldtown “Danes uzutekis” (“Danes Bay”).
More information:
Rūta Merčaitienė
INREAL
GRUPĖ
Head of marketing and communication
Mob.
+370 611 29779
