Vilnius resident transformed 4-room apartment into cottage – you feel much better in your yard

Marijus from Vilnius has long dreamed of her own home. An old-build, 4-room apartment in Fabijoniškės was exchanged by a family of 4 for a country house in the old Vilnius district of Avižieniai. Marijus bought a home in September. The man admits that the purchase of the house was prompted not only by the need for more space or a study, but also by the introduction of quarantines and work from home due to the coronavirus.

“Having your own private space on the patio makes you feel much better, where you can invite friends and at the same time have more fun with your family, at the same time even during quarantine,” says IT specialist Marijus.

According to Ober-Haus, the private housing market in the capital alone has expanded to cover more than 300,000 square meters in the last 4 years. This size is almost equal to the area of ​​8 sands of Žalgiris.

In July-August this year, record numbers of home sales were recorded during the respite after the first wave of coronavirus. About 3,500 of them were purchased in the same period last year, and another 500 more this year.

“In the apartment segment, if we compare it with the third quarter of the previous year, the number of apartments sold is still 3 percent lower. Homes sold up to 16 percent more. Here we are talking about the whole of Lithuania. In other words, this indicator is possibly the highest in the entire history of the country ”, says Raimondas Reginis, representative of Ober-Haus.

According to the expert, the purchase of individual homes has intensified more in the Vilnius and Kaunas regions, as well as in the Klaipėda, Panevėžys and Šiauliai districts. Experts say that with the decrease in the area of ​​newly built apartments, in Vilnius it is on average about 50 square meters, Lithuanians want more spacious and affordable housing, so the only alternative is the housing segment.

In Vilnius, people are determined to deposit an average of around 130 thousand euros for their own unfurnished house, in the Vilnius district, around 75 thousand. Real estate experts note that despite the coronavirus crisis, apartment prices in Lithuania have risen and individual houses have remained more stable.

“The price growth is registered in the apartment segment, while there is no price growth in the individual housing segment,” says Šarūnas Tarutis, representative of Citus.

Marius also compared prices for apartments and houses before buying a house. According to the man, the price of the 160-square-meter cottage he bought is lower than the price of a 5-room apartment in Vilnius. An apartment of this size in the capital’s dormitories can cost 150 thousand euros and more.

When choosing housing, Marius also paid attention to the district’s infrastructure. One of the most important aspects is the convenient transportation both in personal and public transportation, the nearby stop so that children can easily get to school. The risk of congestion was also assessed.

“Before we decided to buy this house, we even drove several times, both in the afternoon and in the morning, to see how. We went with the child on foot to the stop, to see if it is possible for him to come or how long it takes, ”said Marijus.

Experts in the real estate market say that people often assess engineering and social welfare before buying a home in the suburbs and understand that they will not get as developed an infrastructure as in Vilnius, because the Vilnius city municipality lends more attention and money to investment in the city center. is larger than on the margins. And the Vilnius district has less money.

“If we go to the outskirts of the city, we will definitely see a little chaotic development. There are places where not only developers build for sale, but also people build, who buy land and organize construction on their own. We really are. seeing development a bit chaotic, and there may also be some problems in the future ”, says Raimondas Reginis, Head of Market Research.

According to Šarūnas Tarutis, Vilnius is not worth investing in infrastructure in the suburbs, because if the city invests millions, such investments simply would not pay off due to too low a population density, but it seems that in the future there will be more people than wish to settle in and around Vilnius.

“We believe in sustainable growth. Both that the suburbs will develop and that the central part of the city will develop. Due to the fact that Vilnius is growing very strongly. And Vilnius is growing every year, and we register tens of thousands of workers moving to Vilnius every year, ”says Marijus.

Currently, most of the houses in Vilnius are sold where they are mostly built, in Pilaitė and its surroundings, in the south-eastern part of the city, in Kalnėnai, Guriai, Aukštaja Pavilnis.

In the future, specialists forecast the development of infrastructure, and therefore the construction of real estate along the Vilnius ring roads. And if these places seem unattractive today, over time, experts say, their value will only increase.