Foreigners are Actively Selling Estonian Real Estate
Last year, foreigners made twice as many sales transactions as purchase transactions in the Estonian real estate market, with Russians and Finns selling the most, according to statistics from the Land Board and Kinnisvara24.
Among regions, Harju County, Ida-Viru County, and Pärnu County remain the most popular among foreigners. Foreigners are most active in Harju County, where 308 purchase transactions and a record 670 sales transactions were conducted last year. Compared to 2023 data, the number of transactions has increased due to sales offers, which were made over 15% more in 2024 than in the previous year.
On the Harju County real estate market, Finnish and Russian citizens dominate, making 55 and 28 purchase transactions respectively in 2024 and 176 and 168 sales transactions. Russian citizens living in Estonia sold an extraordinary amount of real estate in Ida-Viru County, where 333 sales transactions were conducted last year. "If in 2023 we saw how mainly Russians from Russia eagerly withdrew from the market due to the war situation, then last year local Russians also began actively selling real estate," added Urmas Uibomäe, CEO of Kinnisvara24.
Estonian Russians currently have such great interest in sales transactions that real estate agents again feel a strong need for Russian language skills. "Today, about 50% of interested parties in my sales portfolio are Estonian citizens who speak Russian, which is why I need Russian in my work almost daily," confirmed Laime Riisimäe, a professional real estate agent at Uus Maa. According to Riisimäe, last year there was an extraordinary interest specifically in selling existing real estate. "But when buying, it's either large luxurious apartments or cheaper one- and two-room apartments and summer houses," she added.
According to Riisimäe, Finns, who were previously active investors, have not purchased any properties from her in four years, only sold them. "Most recently, Finns purchased new developments massively in 2020 and 2021, when real estate prices in Estonia were still relatively affordable compared to Finland and high rental yields were expected – one client could have had dozens of apartments to rent out at that time," she added.
In the last couple of years, when real estate prices have stabilized somewhat but remain high, many foreigners have decided to sell the real estate they previously purchased for investment in order to diversify their risks.
According to Anneli Lindemann, a professional real estate agent at Uus Maa, an unstable situation in the Estonian rental market is also cited as a reason for selling. "Even though the number of rental offers has decreased by now, so has the number of clients wanting to rent, which puts pressure on rental prices," she added.
At the same time, according to Lindemann, it is also noticeable that due to a more favorable business environment, 20-30 year old French people and other Europeans have also found their way to Estonia, who today still prefer to live in rental properties, but have also shown interest in purchasing real estate in Estonia.
