The impact of payments from the 2nd pension pillar could be seen on the market of apartment ownerships in September. The record of the past 10 years was broken in the apartment market with 2,498 transactions – the result exceeded the level of the spring, whereas in summer months the number of transactions remained around 2,000.
The 22% increase in the number of transactions is comparable to the share of people who promised to invest the funds they would withdraw from their pension pillar into real estate, pursuant to the Norstat survey carried out in spring. The median price of transactions in September was 1,573 €/m2, which was 11.6% more than in the same period last year.
19,435 apartment transactions were concluded in the first nine months of the year, the median price of the transactions was 1,584 €/m2. In comparison to the same period last year, the number of transactions has increased by 26.2% and the median price by 10.5%. Thus, regardless of the fact that the offering has dropped by 25%, the market is extremely active, and due to one of the quickest inflations in Europe and the 20% increase of the construction prices there will be no movement in the opposite direction, i.e. we will probably not see a drop in the number of transactions. The price increase will also remain higher than average next year.
Estonia
A quick increase in the number of transactions took place in all the largest counties. 1,242 transactions were concluded in Harju County (+30%), 322 transactions in Tartu County (+6.6%), 287 transactions in Ida-Viru County (+17.6%) and 163 transactions in Pärnu County (+18.1%). For the first time, the median price in Harju County crossed the threshold of 2,100 €/m2, whereas in other largest counties the price was below the record level but remained close to the peak.
Increased activity could also be observed in the largest cities, except for Tartu, where the number of transactions dropped due to a change in the share of new developments. 924 transactions were concluded in Tallinn (+29%), 206 transactions in Tartu (-9.7%), 102 transactions in Pärnu (+18.6%).
A record-breaking result was achieved in Narva – 98 transactions have never been concluded there before. That was facilitated by the fact that even one third of the inhabitants of Ida-Viru County withdrew the funds of their 2nd pension pillar. As the average amounts paid to bank accounts remained under 7,500 euros (under 7,000 euros outside the Harju County), people mainly bought real estate that was cheaper than average for those funds.
In the first nine months of the year, the median price of transactions has increased by 7.3% in Tallinn (2,015 €/m2→2,162 €/m2), 13.5% in Tartu (1,553 €/m2→1,763 €/m2), 11% in Pärnu (1,235 €/m2→1,371 €/m2), 5% in Narva (397 €/m2→417 €/m2) in comparison to the same period last year. By segments, the actual price increase in Tallinn is over 10%, the statistical price increase is lower due to the considerably lower share of new developments.
Houses and summer houses
The market of houses and summer houses was already much less affected by the pension funds – 449 transactions were concluded in September (including 344 for houses and 105 for summer houses), which remained at the level of previous months. There was no big increase in Ida-Viru County either, where due to low real estate prices a larger increase in the number of transactions could have been predicted. 58 transactions were concluded in Ida-Viru County in September, which was 10 more than in August, but also in previous months, the number of transactions has been between 50 and 60.
In total, during the first nine months of the year, 3,790 transactions were concluded with built-up residential land (2,922 last year), the average price of houses was 131,000 euros (112,300 euros) and the average price of summer houses was 54,553 euros (42,003 euros). Thus, the price increase in the market of houses and summer houses has been even faster than in the apartment market.