Off the wire
• Roundup: Turkey, Azerbaijan agree to boost ties in key areas  • 1st LD Writethru: Gold jumps as Switzerland scraps euro cap  • Centrist River party eyes third place in coming Greek general elections  • Urgent: Oil prices drop amid ample supplies  • Feature: Kenya's slum dwellers turn to ethanol stoves to reduce indoor pollution  • Interview: UNEP sounds alarm over the plight of great apes  • Kuwait grants Lebanon $19 million for Syrian refugees  • Urgent: Gold jumps as Swiss scraps euro cap  • Spanish authorities investigate into terrorist's activities  • Geese use "roller coaster" strategy to fly over Himalayas: study  
You are here: 　 Home

41 pct of Latvians expect property prices to rise in 2015: survey

Xinhua, January 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

The percentage of Latvians anticipating an increase in property prices in 2015 has dropped by 5 percent to 41 percent, according to the latest SEB Housing Price Indicator released by Latvia's SEB Banka.

The share of respondents expecting a rise in property prices in 2015 has dropped in all regions of Latvia, including Riga, said SEB Latvia household economist Edmunds Rudzitis.

He said that the Housing Price Indicator had been declining for a second consecutive quarter and has now dropped to the lowest point since December 2012. The indicator's value shed 9.4 points from September 2014 to 25.8 points in the latest survey.

Rudzitis attributed this to a changing public sentiment regarding property prices.

While 46 percent of respondents predicted an increase in real estate prices in the previous survey, in the latest poll their percentage was down to 41 percent.

Meanwhile, 15 percent of the Latvians surveyed in the latest poll at the end of 2014 expected housing prices to drop in the next 12 months, down four percentage points from the previous survey.

Also, 24 percent of respondents said the property prices were likely to remain flat, down from 26 percent in the previous survey. The number of respondents without a particular opinion on the issue remained unchanged, at 18 percent.

"Amendments to the insolvency law after which lending policies of banks have become stronger, and amendments to the Immigration Law in relation to issue of temporary residence permits in exchange for investments in real estate properties might have influenced people's opinions about housing price changes in the nearest year. These legislative changes, most probably, will leave a negative impact on property market activities and housing price dynamics," said Rudzitis.

SKDS research and polling company conducted the survey for Latvia's SEB Banka from Nov. 28 to Dec. 13, 2014, interviewing 1,003 permanent residents of Latvia, aged 18 to 74.

In September 2014, SEB Banka was the third biggest bank in Latvia by assets. Endit