Riga, Feb 14 (LETA) - The housing segment in Riga is showing signs of stabilization and it is expected that in 2025 about 2,200 apartments could be added to the real estate market, representatives of the real estate company Colliers Baltic informed LETA.

The company's representatives note that in 2024 the activity in Riga's new apartment market reached its lowest point in the last five years, and the number of transactions dropped by 27 percent.

The main reason was high interest rates, which reduced buyers' ability to pay and made it more difficult to raise finance, explains Colliers Baltic. As a result, a large number of households postponed their home purchase plans, and bookings in new projects remained low.

However, despite the weakness of the market, recorded apartment prices increased. The average price of a new apartment increased by 8 percent to EUR 2,770 per square meter, while prices in renovated projects increased by 7 percent.

The average size of apartments purchased on the primary market continues to decrease year on year - over the last five years the average size of an apartment has decreased by 3.6 square meters, concludes Colliers Baltic. Two-bedroom apartments are the most popular on the market, followed closely by three-bedroom apartments, maintaining a similar proportion of the total transaction volume.

Agija Verdina, Director of Research and Analytics at Colliers Baltic, pointed out that developers continue to offer discounts and other benefits to stimulate market activity, which has resulted in a relatively stable market price level in 2024.

"As market activity increases, developers are expected to gradually reduce discounts and special offers, which is likely to contribute to an increase in the average transaction price," Verdina predicted.