When Selling Real Estate, Pay Attention to the Construction Year

Many who start selling real estate go to the Building Register (EHR) as one of their first steps, where they view the main parameters of buildings and their parts, including the year of construction. However, this last one often presents problems.

For a large number of older buildings, the register typically uses two years: 1940 and 1946. Similarly, different construction years are often followed by the word "presumed" in parentheses.

Since the use of these dates in sales advertisements is extremely common, I would like to point out that in 1940, when Soviet occupation began in Estonia, house construction was already modest, and in 1946, after the war ended, major construction activity had not yet begun.

Moreover, a two-story lender-type house that was built in the years between the 19th and 20th centuries could certainly not have been completed in 1940, and a khrushchyovka with a construction year marked as 1946 could not have been either, because engineer and later Moscow's chief architect Vitali Lagutenko began creating and testing this standard project in 1954. Mass construction of buildings took place everywhere, including here, in the early 1960s.

If you want to be precise and record the actual year of construction of a house, research the projects, visit the archives if necessary, or ask a qualified specialist. Determining the correct construction year is actually very important and simply also demonstrates professionalism. Likewise, I also recommend that house owners, including apartment associations, take a critical look at the information concerning their building in the EHR and make any necessary corrections.

Article author: Risto Vähi, real estate analyst