„In our practice, some buyers have declined purchase of an apartment due to the only reason that the landholder was a third party and hence a rent charge was imposed. This situation has started affecting prices of apartments in the houses standing on rented land, especially, when rent charge is high. The increase in rent charge witnessed in many places, and the latest trends on the market of precast concrete apartments over the recent months indicated again that the government should consider shared property more seriously and solve the mandatory rent issue,” emphasises Head of Latio Valuation Department of Diāna Štāle.

Like in previous months, in July buyers expressed their greater interest in small one-room and two-room apartments in precast concrete blocks of flats in such a condition so that to move in at once without investing much in decoration. There is relatively little appropriate supply with adequate price / quality relationship.

Majority of buyers purchase the small precast apartments for their own funds. Quite often these buyers have sold a larger apartment beforehand and wish to purchase one or several smaller ones, for instance, a one-room apartment and a two-room apartment.

As the beginning of study year draws nearer, precast one-room apartments are acquired by people from other cities and rural areas whose children will start their studies in Riga.

In Riga, the average price of precast housing was 583 euro per square metre in July so it remained at the level as of the preceding month. The average price of precast apartments has added 1.4% during the seven months of 2012. In comparison with July 2011, prices of precast apartments were 1.2% higher this July.

Prices of quality apartments in precast concrete buildings range between EUR 22,000–29,000 for one-room apartments, EUR 28,000–38,000 for two-room apartments, EUR 34,000–47,000 for three-room apartments, EUR 40,000–55,000 for four-room apartments, in the following parts of Riga: Purvciems, Plavnieki, Zolitude, Imanta, and Ziepniekkalns.