Expert: Tartu Road Has Turned Into a Real Car Market

The Tartu Road leaving Tallinn and the Peetri area are becoming Estonia's new automotive business hub, where a large number of leading brand dealers and service companies are concentrated. High demand for suitable roadside properties has also increased the value of more distant plots, comments 1Partner Real Estate consultant Silver Ojamets. 

While previously Tallinn's major car services and sales showrooms were scattered across the city, in recent years the center of gravity of the automotive business has shifted noticeably to the sides of Tartu Road and to the Peetri area. "Just as shopping centers group sellers of the same range, for example shoe stores, close together, car dealers have made the first kilometers of Tartu Road beyond the city border into a kind of automotive shopping center. The concentration of the automotive business into a specific junction with good visibility is logical and the activity with which companies are looking for and developing premises there is remarkable," says Ojamets, who has mediated several transactions in the region.

The growing importance of the region in the automotive business is already evident from the number of companies concentrated there. "For example, the Nordic region's largest Toyota dealership Amserv recently opened its doors on the side of Tartu Road, and Tesla, which has carefully prepared its entry into the Estonian market and carefully chosen its location, has finally decided to open its showroom there as well," says Ojamets. Companies such as United Motors, Inchcape, Møller Auto, Veho, luxury car dealer Ferati and several other companies related to car sales, service and spare parts already operate in the area.

According to 1Partner's consultant, the most sought-after are roadside properties from the Tallinn border towards Peetri, where there are very few free plots left. "Good visibility is naturally important for the automotive business, but by now the region is already valued as a whole, where companies in one field also support each other's visibility and the region's reputation. However, the choice of plots of suitable size and purpose is becoming increasingly smaller, and by now even the so-called second-tier properties on both sides of Tartu Road are priced accordingly," explains Ojamets.