“Whereas six months ago we were forecasting more rapid economic recovery, today we’re forced to admit that tax hikes are slowing this down. That said, there’s every reason to believe we could see more positive economic growth indicators as early as 2025.” So said Janar Muttik, the founder and CEO of Everaus Kinnisvara, in comments to Kinnisvarauudised. “That will lead to an increase in the number of property transactions and, presumably, a modest rise in prices as well, in the range of 2-5%. That increase is mainly being driven by higher input prices.”
Muttik says the stock of ready-to-use real estate is beginning to decrease, since a lot of developers have not launched new projects in quite some time. This drop-off in choice on the market is, in turn, placing upward pressure on prices. “Everaus’ sales figures are approaching those of 2-3 years ago, indicating a recovery on the market, but we still have to take into account that a lot of people are being forced to abandon their plans to buy new property because of tax increases,” he explained. “That’s why they’re turning to the secondary market. New real estate developments will become more affordable to buyers if and when Euribor comes down, which is forecast to happen this year, and if wage growth continues. If both those things occur and consumer confidence is restored, I’d expect the pace of sales of new developments to pick up and prices to gradually start rising again.”