Statistics: Major Changes in Real Estate Transactions by Foreigners
According to Risto Vähi, an analyst at Estonia's largest real estate agency Uus Maa, foreigners conducted the same volume of real estate transactions last year compared to the previous year, but there were major changes among buyers – the number of Finnish purchases fell by a third and among Russians it rose by as much as 42.2 percent.
According to Risto Vähi, residents of foreign countries conducted a total of 3,617 buy-sell transactions with real estate in Estonia last year, which is 1.3 percent less than a year ago. "The most popular regions among foreigners are still Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, and Ida-Virumaa. In the latter, Russian residents have a large share," said Vähi.
"The general trend shows that there are more sellers than buyers and the share of local capital is increasing. Foreigners feel less interest in local property against the backdrop of crises and are more selling than buying. There is also a generational change – people who arrived here in the 1990s have become older and their children are more interested in other regions. Therefore, Estonian real estate is rather being sold and purchased to maintain retirement homes in southern Europe or the heirs of the former buyer are realizing the property. This also explains why there are many residents of the Kingdom of Sweden among sellers, but no longer among buyers," said Vähi.
"The biggest change over the year occurred among Russian residents, whose purchases jumped sharply. This is due to the war and large-scale emigration, of which Estonia also became a part. These are mainly people who have been connected to Estonia in some way before, who have family or business here," said Uus Maa analyst.
"The number of Ukrainian buyers has also increased over the year, but still remains well below 100 and does not yet have a very large impact on the local buy-sell market," added Risto Vähi.
- 2022 TOP3 foreign real estate sellers compared to 2021
- Finns – 925 (-6.3%)
- Russians – 512 (+2.2%)
- Swedes – 280 (+0.4%)
- 2022 TOP3 foreign real estate buyers compared to 2021
- Finns – 270 (-34.3%)
- Russians – 300 (+42.2%)
- Germans – 97 (-2%)
Article author: Risto Vähi, Uus Maa Real Estate Agency analyst.
