"In the run-up to 2015, it was feared that the euro would make Lithuania's real estate market stagnant, rather than livening it up, because neighboring countries saw a decline in transactions at the start of the year of euro adoption compared with that before euro adoption," Saulius Vagonis, head of the real estate services company's Valuation and Market Research Unit, told BNS.
"These forecasts proved wrong and the year 2015 was unexpectedly more active than predicted," he said.
According to Vagonis, an analysis of available data shows that the general level of prices for apartments in Lithuania's five major cities rose by 2.2 % between January and November 2015, with the biggest increase in prices, at 3.5 %, registered in Vilnius.
The analyst forecasts that residential property transaction volumes will decline by up to 5 % this year compared with 2015 and that prices in the major cities will rise by 2-3%.
He attributes this to the market conditions remaining similar to those in 2015, the improving economic situation, rising land prices and higher energy efficiency requirements for buildings.
According to preliminary figures released by the Center of Registers on Thursday, annual apartment sales in Lithuania fell by 8 % in 2015 compared with 2014 to 29,600 units. The market reached its peak last October, when 3,020 flats changed owners, the best monthly result in the past year and a half.
