House prices up 4.05% y-o-y in Q3 2019

Lithuania’s housing market remains healthy, with the five major cities’ apartment price index (covering Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys) rising by 4.05% during the year to Q3 2019 (inflation-adjusted) – an improvement from a y-o-y rise of just 0.71% in Q3 2018. Quarter-on-quarter, house prices increased 1.76% in Q3 2019.

Demand remains strong, amidst weakening supply

In 2018, apartment sales in Vilnius rose by 7% while house sales surged 17% from a year earlier. In fact, according to OberHaus, 2018 saw record activities both in the apartment and housing sectors, which exceeded the previous record of overall number of housing transactions, set in 2007, by 6%.

In 2018, dwelling permits rose by 3.1% y-o-y to 16,658 units while dwelling completions increased 10.9% to 12,244 units, according to Statistics Lithuania. But in the first three quarters of 2019, dwelling permits fell by 11.4% while completions declined slightly by 0.7% from the same period last year.

Rents, rental yields: rental yields are good at 5.39%

Vilnius apartment costs are very low at around €2,163 per sq. m. 

Lithuania: typical city centre apartment buying price, monthly rent (120 sq. m)
  Buying price Rate per month Yield
Vilnius € 259,560 € 1,166 5.39%

Recent news. Lithuania’s economy grew by 3.6% in Q3 2019 from a year earlier, a slowdown from y-o-y expansions of 3.8% in Q2 and 4.2% in Q1, amidst weakening industrial output and softer retail sales growth, according to Statistics Lithuania. The Bank of Lithuania projects the economy to grow by 3.7% this year, following GDP growth rates of 3.5% in 2018, 4.1% in 2017, 2.4% in 2016 and 2% in 2015.