Central bank: property market activity at record high

The Vilnius and Kaunas property markets, at their all-time highs this year, will likely register a similar number of new apartment transactions next year, but Klaipeda is expected to see a more significant growth, according to the Bank of Lithuania's latest survey of real estate market participants.

"The housing market in the large cities has been very active in recent years due to people's growing revenue and improving housing affordability as well as the currently favorable demographic situation," Vaidotas Sumskis, senior economist at the central bank's Macroprudential Analysis Division, said in a press release on Friday.

"Moderate growth in apartment sales and rental rates is expected next year," he said.

A sufficiently large supply of new homes and responsible lending requirements are currently preventing the real estate market from overheating and forming bubbles, according to Sumskis.

The number of respondents expecting prices for new apartments to rise in the next 12 months increased compared with a similar survey carried out half a year ago.

The Bank of Lithuania conducts its real estate market surveys twice a year.