Interest in Rapla Municipality Real Estate is High

Real estate is and will always be a hot topic. Questions like: what would my property be worth now, will prices fall, or is it even worth selling now, all make up a major discussion topic that we encounter daily.

Rapla has gained increasing popularity over the years and is a small town that is in constant development and where the well-being of residents is valued. Rapla follows a trend – young people to Tallinn, middle-aged people back. Young people go to universities and/or to the capital to build careers, and at an older age, people begin to value the silence and peace that is exactly what our dear Rapla offers.

The Rapla surroundings, the entire municipality, are also in constant development. Many new single-family homes are being built, so to speak away from the urban jungle, but still in such a way that everything needed for comfortable living would be at hand. This is also shown by the continuous growth of the population in Rapla municipality, which stood at 13,228 as of January 1, 2023. In Rapla town itself, this number has remained stable at just over 5,000 residents.

New apartments are certainly crowd-pullers that make the region popular, stand out, and because of which people want to buy apartments here. After all, everyone likes beautiful and brand-new real estate.

Apartment developments completed last year (Mahlamäe Street 7 and Põllu Street 1a/1b) certainly gave Rapla a boost in real estate terms. Some wanted to buy a new home for themselves, others as an investment for rental income. There are quite a few detail plans under review in the municipality, and the keyword for Rapla's future would be "developing".

I recently saw a KV24 article titled: "An Estonian dreams of a big house, but buys an apartment". This is explained by examples that single-family home listings have plenty of views, but in general, there are fewer transactions with them than with apartments. However, if you look at the transactions in Rapla municipality in 2022, the most have been made with plots of land, namely 283. There are fewer transactions with houses and apartments and relatively equally 212 and 207, respectively. It seems that for the people here, the saying more applies: "A Raplak dreams of a house and builds it" or acquires a house or plot for himself.

However, the average median price of houses was 54,940 euros last year, which shows that many transactions were made with more affordable houses. Thus, more expensive and prominent properties make up a fairly small percentage of transactions made. It seems that recently, renovation has become trendy, people invest to create higher value for their properties.

Apartments sold in Rapla municipality last year totaled 188, and their median price per square meter came to 1,124. Compared to 2021, the price level rose by as much as 52.7%. Behind such a growth percentage is both a general price increase, newly completed apartments, but also simply the growth in popularity of Rapla municipality as a place to live.

What will 2023 bring?

Like throughout Estonia, it is also visible in Rapla municipality that people are in a very wait-and-see position and do not dare to make too many moves in the real estate landscape. People are waiting to see what the coming months will bring, what happens to euribor, and how people will manage in general.

According to forecasts, in spring, along with the sun, people's interest in real estate could gradually awaken, and step by step we will eventually return to normalcy. All of this depends, of course, on what happens in the economy, the speed of its recovery, and also on how the war progresses.

The future in Rapla seems to be coming, as mentioned earlier, developing. I believe that many new and exciting projects will be implemented, which will add even more value to the town and make this small place ever more beautiful and appreciated.

Article author: Martin Tilk (Uus Maa Maakri office real estate agent)