Housing and property market in Lithuania
Sabaliauskas, Kestutis
The real property market in Lithuania is based on principles of private ownership and ownership immunity, prudence, fairness, justice and protection of the rights of those legitimately acquiring real property. The last decade residential property market underwent one of the largest booms as well as one of the hardest falls among other property markets in Lithuania. Influenced by a strong growth of the economy and even stronger future growth forecasts, fuelled by loosely controlled bank credit market and inexpensive lending as well as high future income expectations, the residential property market suffered from quick yet low-quality supply of new residential projects, bankruptcies of many of property developers and failures of many of the inhabitants who took mortgages, to repay or keep with the payment schedule. After economic boom at the end of 2007 the real property market started showing signs of stagnation: the housing price growth subsided and the number of real property transactions decreased. Due to increased uncertainty and banks tightening credit availability, lending for house purchase and to the housing market-related enterprises declined significantly since the end of 2007. The Lithuanian housing market in 2011 retained the stability of the year. Even though residential property prices in the major cities of Lithuania remained fairly stable, further growth in the number of transactions was recorded.
Event: FIG Working Week 2012 : Territory, environment, and cultural heritage
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