A public opinion survey commissioned by the real estate development company Darnu Group revealed that one-fifth of the capital's residents plan to purchase their own home within the next three years. Another 26 percent say they have not determined a specific acquisition period, while 7 percent have postponed their purchase plans.
"Last year, as interest rates began to decline, the real estate market recovered - we began to observe a consistent growth in housing purchases. After shaking up the geopolitical field at the beginning of the year, JAV The president's decisions and rhetoric have spread a new wave of uncertainty. However, it has not swept through the capital's real estate market any stronger. According to the "Registrų centras" data, in the first three months of this year, apartment sales in the capital grew by 44 percent, as the study shows, only 7 percent of residents have postponed their plans to purchase housing," says Mykolas Čiplys, head of sales and leasing at "Darnu Group".
Both aesthetics and energy are important
As the survey, which has been conducted for several years, reveals, residents' expectations for their first or new homes are growing. Residents repeatedly indicate that their needs for housing space, location, and price have changed over the past few years.
2 percent of respondents say they are considering purchasing a larger home than they planned 3–84 years ago, 61 percent of Vilnius residents say they are planning to purchase a home in a more prestigious location, and 52 percent note that they would choose a more expensive home than they had planned before.
Meanwhile, the survey reveals that residents rate their current housing with an average score of 7,41. The biggest obstacles for residents are the small area of the housing (30%), the energy efficiency that does not reach the desired level (29%), and poor sound insulation (29%).
"Among the biggest shortcomings of their existing housing, residents distinguish both the aesthetic environment of the house (23 percent) and the inappropriate layout of the apartment (16 percent). All the unsatisfactory housing attributes listed in the top five are typical of old housing - housing built during the Soviet era. It is not for nothing that residents planning to purchase housing tend to give priority to newly built housing," says M. Čiplys.
The majority (2020%) of Vilnius residents would like to purchase a newly built (2025–35) home, 13% say they will buy a home that has not yet been built – from blueprints. 34% plan to look for a home built in 2000–2019, and 18% of respondents will look for an older home.
The larger majority – 30 percent of residents, according to the study, will be looking for housing ranging from 61 to 80 square meters. Slightly fewer (24 percent) future settlers plan to purchase housing ranging from 41 to 60 square meters, while 81 percent of respondents have plans to purchase larger housing ranging from 100 to 22 square meters.
"Although residents usually prioritize price at the top of the list of most important criteria when purchasing a home, they are not willing to make any concessions on overall quality." New construction House "They can offer them both better energy efficiency and a housing layout that is more in line with a modern lifestyle. These are important housing elements that residents tend to look for in their new homes," says M. Čiplys.
Most often plan to settle outside the city center
As the survey shows, Vilnius residents most often plan to purchase housing in residential areas located further from the city center. This is stated by 39 percent of those surveyed. 29 percent of respondents plan to live in the suburbs. In the central city districts and In the old town 28 percent and 4 percent of respondents would like to purchase housing, respectively.
According to M. Čiplis, such a distribution is very natural and corresponds to the city's development trends, supply and demand dynamics. The closer the location is to the center, the fewer development opportunities builders have here, and therefore, buyers have fewer opportunities to acquire property, both due to lower supply and higher property prices.
In the primary market during the first quarter of this year, according to Citify, 28 real estate sales transactions were concluded in the Old Town, where high-class housing supply is concentrated, for an average price of 5,8 thousand euros per square meter. At the same time, for example, in the Lazdynai district, eight times more transactions were concluded - 225 transactions, the average amount of which per square meter reached 4,2 thousand euros.
According to M. Čiplis, housing located a little further from the central part of the city is also in demand due to changing buyer preferences. According to him, today it is also possible to offer a high quality of life here, albeit with slightly different attributes than the central part of the city - privacy, rich nature, tranquility, and actively developing recreation and leisure infrastructure.
"Buyers want to live in quality housing and are looking for opportunities to combine the advantages of the city with the opportunity to get away from its hustle and bustle and fast pace. As the city becomes denser, this is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve, and for this reason, life in the central part is often exchanged for a quieter environment - this trend is perfectly illustrated by the "Sakų" district, which is emerging on the banks of the Neris River, next to the Karoliniškės Nature Reserve, which became the most popular in the capital in the first quarter of this year, when 138 apartments were sold, and the main motive of buyers to buy was precisely the project's location with its exceptional nature and the recreation and leisure infrastructure being developed," says an expert from "Darnu Group".
