Liven’s director: Quality goods can only be bought on paper today. A study of the real estate market just published by Kantar Emor shows that the most popular areas among home seekers in Tallinn are Kristiine, which is considered by 49% of those planning to buy a new apartment as the location of their future home, as well as the city centre, which is preferred by 46%, and North Tallinn, where 40% of the respondents want to build their future home.

During this year, the real estate company that has grown its reputation the most has been Liven AS. According to the company’s CEO Andero Laur, the most active buyers in the real estate market are still the Y-generation, in other words millennials. Their taste and needs determine, which real estate is in the greatest demand according to Laur.

Liven AS recently announced the start of construction of 80 new homes in Tallinn, which will be completed at the end of 2021. At a time when there is a lot of uncertainty with regard to the economy, the head of the company, Andero Laur finds that in reality, banks are offering more and more support to home buyers in making choices. “As a rule, since banks are financiers of transactions, they carefully study the customer’s choice and, if necessary, give advice to the buyer,” confirms Laur.

At the same time, Laur points out the change that has taken place in the market over the last five years. According to Laur, it is only possible to buy quality goods on paper. “By the time the building is completed, there are only a few apartments left in the better projects,” says the head of Liven AS, adding: “the reality is that the market is still waiting for high-quality developments and demand has not disappeared. On the contrary, the interim anticipation due to the spring emergency has been replaced by an active sales activity.” According to Laur, the first to get an overview of the developments and receive the best offers will be buyers, who have registered their interest on the developers’ websites before the start of the active sales period.

A need for bigger homes

According to Laur, the construction of large development projects was postponed for some time in late spring, but with the arrival of summer, the situation stabilized faster than expected: “If a family needs a new home, it is usually not very convenient to postpone it. This year, the real estate market is characterized by buyers’ desire for a home office, and I dare to predict that working from home will become increasingly popular, which in turn will necessitate building larger apartments.”

With regard to the economy, Laur sees a threat of inflation or a rise in prices. “Deposits of Estonian people have been constantly growing and savings have been carefully collected even during the current crisis. First, thanks to the large money supply, stock prices have risen to very high levels. This is usually followed by the prices of other asset classes, such as real estate, rising as well. ”Kantar Emor’s survey also shows that 43% of the respondents forecast an increase in real estate prices. 23% of the respondents predict a decrease in prices. On the other hand, 34% of people believe that real estate prices will remain the same.

Green demand

Although location (49%), layout (38%) and price (37%) are most often mentioned as the most important factors when buying a new home, Laur says that more and more people are citing sustainable and environmentally friendly factors as arguments when buying new homes. “Energy saving as a core value of green thinking has been an important argument for many years,” says Laur.

In terms of the added value of real estate, the respondents to the Kantar Emor survey value the existence of a courtyard the most, which was cited by 57% of the respondents. 47% of people wish to have children’s playgrounds on the premises. “We can see from the survey that real estate buyers value the city centre and the surrounding areas the most. The courtyard also offers privacy and the feeling of closeness to nature in the urban environment, which strongly shape the purchase decisions of the future home owners,” notes Laur.