• LT Articles
  • 1/4/2022

Steady growth in the housing market after a record start in 2021: YIT Lietuva sold 663 apartments last year

The country's 2021 housing market ended with a high level of activity but a stable growth trajectory. This trend is reflected in the results of last year's housing sales of sustainable urban development and construction company YIT Lietuva. In the last quarter of the year, the company sold 82 apartments - 29 percent. less than in the third quarter and 23 percent. less than the same period last year, and completed 2021 with a total of 539 home sales transactions. In addition, last year the company concluded one of the largest real estate sales transactions in the market with BTA Baltic Insurance Company, to which it sold two newly built apartment buildings with 124 apartments in the Naujoji Skansen project in Vilnius. Compared to 2020, the sales of apartments have risen almost 2.5 times this year.

Last year, the company sold 469 apartments in Vilnius, 182 apartments in Kaunas and 12 apartments in Klaipėda. The project of Naujoji Skansen near the financial center of the capital, where 184 apartments were sold, and the Piliamestis quarter on the right bank of the Neris in Kaunas, where settlers bought 176 apartments this year, attracted the greatest interest from buyers.

"The first half of 2021, and especially the spring, was particularly active in the housing market. We recorded record sales and significantly outperformed other countries where YIT is developing housing projects. Market growth stabilized in the second half of the year, but demand for high-quality housing projects remained high, and rising house prices and overall rising inflation encouraged people to continue investing in real estate. We should monitor similar trends this year as well, ”predicts Kęstutis Vanagas, CEO of YIT Lietuva.

According to K. Vanagas, although the supply of new housing in the market is expected to increase somewhat in 2022, even this will not stop the growth of housing prices. It is determined not only by the imbalance between housing supply and demand, but also by rising construction costs - land plots are becoming more expensive for the development of new projects, labor, materials, services, energy resources, and new taxes are being applied to the development of real estate. In addition, from the beginning of this year, all new residential buildings must be of A ++ energy efficiency class, which also leads to higher construction costs. All this is reflected in the final price of housing.

"The huge demand for housing has also attracted new one-day developers to the market, who do not always have the necessary experience and resources to implement high-quality projects. As a result, although the total number of implemented projects is increasing, those looking for quality housing that meets their needs do not necessarily have much choice. We have noticed that with high market activity, buyers have started to pay even more attention to the reliability of developers - this is one of the most important criteria when buying an apartment "from the drawings", says K. Vanagas.

This year, YIT Lietuva will continue to develop the Naujoji Skansen quarter in Šnipiškės and complete the development of the last stage of the Matau Vilnius project in the center of the capital, near Tauras Hill. It is also planned to start the development of a new project in Viršuliškės district in Vilnius. In Kaunas, the company will continue the development of Piliamiesčio on the right bank of the Neris River, opposite the Old Town.