Buyers start to look to unfinished dwellings
At the beginning of 2011, no major changes were observed in the Lithuanian residential property market. For the first quarter of the year there was a slight increase in the total number of residential property transactions, there are minor price fluctuations, while the development of new projects is just beginning to take off. This is a seasonal factor at this time of the year when the market is at its least active for the first few months.
For the first three months of 2011, the prices of apartments in largest Lithuanian cities showed a symbolic decrease of just 0.4%. During this period, negative changes were seen in all Lithuanian cities: in Vilnius – 0.2%, in Kaunas – 1.2%, in Klaipėda – 0.1%, in Šiauliai – 0.7% and in Panevėžys – 0.1%. Taking into account the extent of changes in prices, we can say that the Lithuanian residential property market seems to have hit a stable price “bottom”; the statistical fluctuations that are affected by seasonality, have already been formed.
Nevertheless, the general activity of the residential property market in Lithuania continues to increase. According to the data of the State Enterprise Centre of Registers, the number of residential property (apartments and private houses) sale transactions in Lithuania, for the first quarter of this year, was 13% greater than in the previous year. This increase is significantly lower compared to 2010, when the number of housing transactions concluded in the first quarter of 2010 was one third larger compared to the same period of 2009. However, it should be noted that in 2009 the number of housing transactions was at an unprecedented low level, therefore the relative increase in 2010 seemed to be large. While, in the first quarter of 2009, on the average about 350 private houses and 960 apartment sale transactions were concluded per month in Lithuania, the figure this year has increased to 430 private house and almost 1,500 apartment sale transactions per month.
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