Apartment supply drops in Riga as prices climb: report

The supply of apartments for sale in the Latvian capital Riga dropped 3.2 percent month on month in October, while prices continued to move up, Latvia's Arco Real Estate company said in its latest market review.

The real estate company noted that the number of apartments available in Riga's residential neighborhoods has been declining for six months in a row.

Compared with October 2015, apartment supply in Riga fell 25.3 percent in October and shrank by 31.7 percent in the city's largest residential neighborhoods, according to the report.

As far as prices are concerned, apartments in standard design multi-floor buildings rose 0.4 percent from September 2016 and climbed 6.6 percent from the beginning of this year in October.

In October, prices of apartments rose by 13.6 percent against the beginning of 2014 and 9.6 percent against the beginning of 2015, Arco Real Estate said in the report.

The average apartment price in Riga grew to 698 euros per square meter, remaining 56.9 percent below the all-time high of 1,620 per square meter, recorded in July 2007.

Although apartment prices in Riga kept climbing in October, the rise had slowed down from the first half of this year, Arco Real Estate experts said, predicting that the price per square meter will probably exceed the 700 euro mark by the end of this year.

The real estate company attributed the rise in apartment prices to the low supply, which continued to decrease also in October. Endit