Riga apartment prices climb faster than expected

RIGA, March 6 (Xinhua) -- After an unexpectedly steep rise in 2017, apartment prices in the Latvian capital city Riga will continue to climb this year, with the fastest price hikes expected in the segment of new residential projects, Latvian business daily Dienas Bizness reported on Tuesday.

Apartment prices in newly built residential houses jumped 12 percent last year, which was an unexpectedly swift increase, Maris Laukalejs, valuation head at Arco Real Estate, told the newspaper, adding that in 2017 the prices of new apartments were expected to rise by up to 10 percent at best.

Explaining the faster-than-expected increase in apartment prices, the expert said that the supply of repossessed properties that are managed by banks' real estate firms plummeted last year. These apartments had made up the least expensive segment of the properties available on the market, keeping down the average price level.

While in 2016 the average price of a square meter in a new apartment in Riga was 1,200 euros (1,488 U.S. dollars), by the end of 2017 it had come close to 1,400 euros. Enditem