The center of gravity in the apartment market is slowly shifting towards new projects.

Analysts of both banks and real estate companies emphasize the fact that more new apartments have been bought on the market this year. In Riga and Pieriga, the market reorientation towards the demand for apartments in the so-called new projects continues, said Normunds Dūcis, Swedbank’s Head of Mortgage Lending. This year, the demand for a Swedbank loan in this segment has grown by 72% compared to the corresponding period last year, which was facilitated by both the increase in supply and the relatively slow process of renovation of outdated houses. In Riga, the number of transactions has increased (in the first half of the year by 22% compared to the corresponding period last year), especially in the so-called new project segment. A total of 4,700 apartment purchase-sale transactions took place in Riga, numerically the most of them were in January and April (almost 900 per month). The total volume of transactions with apartments in the first half of this year was 275 million. EUR, referring to the data of the State Land Service, informs the company CBRE. Arco Real Estate also highlights activity in the segment of new projects, where the number of transactions has increased by a third (31%) when comparing the data of the first half of this year and the first six months of last year. This is mainly explained by the increase in the activity observed in the micro-districts of Riga (+47%), while the number of transactions in the center of Riga has even decreased slightly (-2%). Arco Real Estate board member Māris Laukalējs has previously pointed out to the DB the peculiarities of the so-called new project market or, more precisely, the registration of transactions, that is, transactions in new projects often take place over the course of a year or two and the data appear in the land registry only when the project has been put into operation. However, despite the semi-artificial increase in the number of transactions, the demand for new projects is definitely growing, the expert said. See more about the new projects on our website

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