{"id":7637,"date":"2018-04-20T08:41:45","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T08:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latviasothebysrealty.com\/?p=7637"},"modified":"2018-04-20T09:29:27","modified_gmt":"2018-04-20T09:29:27","slug":"premium-property-market-increasingly-accessible-local-customer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latviasothebysrealty.com\/en\/premium-property-market-increasingly-accessible-local-customer\/","title":{"rendered":"Premium property market \u2013 increasingly accessible for the local customer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local customers are the driving force for the premium<\/em>\u00a0residential market development in Riga; the growth trend will continue this year as well
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The highest comfort level, or premium,<\/em>\u00a0properties are becoming more accessible to the local customer, who mainly chose existing houses in the Riga Center and often \u2013 as the objects for investing their funds.\u00a0 Thus,\u00a0local customers become as the main power of this the property segment market activity.
\nThe available Riga premium<\/em>\u00a0apartment property offer (in the price category from 150 to 300 thousand EUR) exhibits the highest business activity: In 2017, in comparison with previous year, an increase of 10.5% was recorded, with more than 300 transactions totalling over<\/strong>\u00a060 million EUR. Latvia’s economic growth last year was fastest in the past six years, coupled with the increase in salaries and the new Altum<\/em> program for young professionals allows you to predict the positive trend to continue this year as well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This point of view, according to collected data, expressed Inese Za\u0137\u012bte<\/strong>, “Baltic Sotheby’s International Realty”<\/em> sales consultant.
\nShe explains that the “Baltic Sotheby’s International Realty”<\/em> premium<\/em> property segment is divided into four parts: the so-called “affordable premium <\/em>segment” \u2013 <\/em>estate price group from 150 to 300 thousand EUR, followed by properties priced from 301 to 500 thousand EUR, followed the properties from 500 thousand to a million EUR, and expensive \u2013 from a million\u00a0EUR and more. Tendencies of the last years show that in\u00a0the premium<\/em> market the tone is determined by local customers, who mostly choose higher comfort level properties,\u00a0in\u00a0the affordable price group from 150 to 300 thousand EUR, mainly apartments in the Centre of Riga.
\n“If until 2016 the premium<\/em> property customers\u00a0ratio was 40:60, the vast majority being non-residents,\u00a0for several years\u00a0we have observed a reversing trend, where most\u00a0customers are local, for whom these properties have become more accessible, and an increasing demand trend is notable. It was boosted by faster economic growth, rising salaries, and the state-supported Altum<\/em> program. Since in\u00a0 March the new Altum<\/em> program for young professionals without a transaction amount limit was introduced, we expect that it will further enhance the\u00a0so called\u00a0“affordable premium<\/em> segment” growth,” said I. Za\u0137\u012bte.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In Riga dominated business residential locations in the highest comfort level apartments in the property segment. From a total of 2017, in the country made 497 premium<\/em> apartment property transactions, 377 transactions were in Riga for a total amount of more than 91 million EUR.
\nThe most purchased premium<\/em> apartment properties in the\u00a0price group from 150 to 300 thousand EUR: last year in this price category we recorded more than 300 transactions totalling over 60 million EUR. In the\u00a0price category of 301 to 500 thousand\u00a0EUR, 48 transactions were\u00a0made totalling over 16 million EUR, in the price category of 500 thousand\u00a0to a million\u00a0EUR, last year there were been 9, and above a million\u00a0EUR \u2013\u00a0just 3 transactions for Riga premium<\/em> apartments. Business activity growth in 2017, in the so-called affordable price category, compared with the previous year, has been about 10.5%.<\/p>\n

As “Baltic Sotheby’s International Realty”<\/em> sales consultant Inese Za\u0137\u012bte<\/em> explains, in recent years\u00a0in this property market segment, stability of the growth trend is observed: many\u00a0owners\u00a0renovate their properties, offering apartments to buy, alongside the development of new projects. Among Riga premium<\/em> apartment transactions still the most active area is in the Centre of Riga, in particular the quiet centre: real estate built before the 21st<\/sup> century. However, activity within new projects has been keeping up: demand for these properties has been stable since the beginning of 2015, when on average about half \u2013 around 200 \u2013 of all the premium<\/em> apartment transactions in Riga were new properties. Last year, the total of new premium<\/em> apartment transactions was 38.7 million EUR. One of the most active locations for new projects in Riga in the peripheral centre neighbourhood has been the Skanste neighbourhood, where premium<\/em> properties are redeemed already at the construction stage.
\nStable demand was observed\u00a0for 2-3 room apartment properties, but lately the demand for larger \u2013 4 \u2013 5 room \u2013 premium<\/em> apartments has increased, which are purchased by larger family, although the property market\u2019s supply is not extensive.<\/p>\n

I. Za\u0137\u012bte<\/em> commented: “We can\u00a0see that the market situation is changing\u00a0as a whole, and certainly changes will also come following this year’s events in the banking sector. Increasingly more customers are exploring the possibility of investing money in premium<\/em>-class properties with a profit of 3-5% per year, which is more profitable and safer than to keeping one\u2019s funds in a bank deposit.
\nWe observe that the customers very carefully assess where to invest\u00a0their funds: they weigh the combination\u00a0compliance of\u00a0price, liquidity, and quality. With regard to the purchase of real estate,\u00a0customers have become much more demanding and discerning, because in addition to location, price and apartment layout, they wish to receive information about the construction quality, safety, security, building management and utility costs. Therefore, the projects and properties, offered on the market are becoming higher-quality. Recently we\u00a0have been actively working with property sellers, explaining the trends and the demand, so\u00a0the premium<\/em> segment\u00a0can offer properties of\u00a0appropriate quality and price, and to continue development of the segment in a positive direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expressing the forecasts\u00a0about development of Riga\u00a0premium<\/em>\u00a0apartments market this year, the “Baltic Sotheby’s International Realty”<\/em> sales consultant believes that the current activity indicates that trends will continue: the local customer will be the driving force for this market segment, and development will expand. One can\u00a0forecast changes in the direction of\u00a0a market price correction, which may be sparked by the recent events in the banking sector. It could certainly be a positive for the local\u00a0customer, as\u00a0premium<\/em> segment properties that locals can afford by taking\u00a0mortgages with banks or using their savings will become increasingly accessible to the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local customers are the driving force for the premium\u00a0residential market development in Riga; the growth trend will continue this year as well The highest comfort level, or premium,\u00a0properties are becoming more accessible to the local customer, who mainly chose existing houses in the Riga Center and often \u2013 as the objects for investing their funds.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":7641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latviasothebysrealty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7637"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latviasothebysrealty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latviasothebysrealty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latviasothebysrealty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latviasothebysrealty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7637"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/latviasothebysrealty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7645,"href":"https:\/\/latviasothebysrealty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7637\/revisions\/7645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latviasothebysrealty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latviasothebysrealty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latviasothebysrealty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latviasothebysrealty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}