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Archived Articles
Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia: One MarketThree Baltic countries Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, all of them former Soviet republics and since this spring NATO and EU members, show remarkable achievements in their real estate market developments. It's fair to say that they represent successful stories among the former Soviet block countries, showing clear political and economic strategies, mobilization of the world diasporas, realistic plans and excellent (so far) results. A combination of long and short-term factors* put these countries at the top of the list of potential investment options. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia viewed from the west, have since time unmemorable represented a group of undivided nations, although they have different ethnic, linguistic and religious background. Last 300 years of uniform political domination by Russia and later by the Soviet Union with brief period of independence between two world wars and after 1991 made these differences seem pale. After a brief period after 1991 when Estonia seemed to go quicker towards the West, now they all show more or less uniform real estate market trends, which makes possible putting them together in this review. All three countries, after a short period of economic difficulties linked to the Russian financial crisis of 1998, now show remarkable economic achievements. Lithuania was perhaps the European country with the highest rate of economic growth in 2003 of 9%. The other countries from the group show also excellent economic results of 5-6% GDP growth. The inflation is under control and largely within the EU norms, with slight and hopefully temporary exception of Latvia where it goes beyond 3%. Residential real estate market is in full take off, varying in the last year from 10% in Estonian capital city of Tallinn, passing by 20% in Latvian capital Riga and reaching 40-50% in Lithuanian capital Vilnius, where the prices in the past started at lower level. In absolute figures the prices in all three capitals vary slightly from EURO 800-900/sq.m for old housing to EURO 1,000-1,200/sq.m for newly built apartments. In the old historic towns the prices for renovated apartments are higher, ranging from EURO 1,000 to EURO 2,000/sq.m. The potential for growth in 2004 is good in all three countries. More conservative estimations are for 5-10%, more optimistic point at 15-20% price increase. The average living space is still half or less than half of the EU average. This factor coupled with growing internal and external demand, quickly developing mortgage market and still relatively moderate price levels all make the market horizons look brighter. Residential rentals is another market segment that makes these three countries look more like three parts of one market instead of three different markets. The tenants, who for their larger part are foreign businesspersons and specialists, rent apartments in these three capitals for EURO 1,000-1,500 a month. Foreign nationals are permitted to buy properties in all three countries with the same qualification to ask for municipal approval while buying land. For those who wish to invest on the residential market, the returns are also very similar, varying between 9 and 12% per year. * - The expensive oil and the close market connection to Russia as major oil exporter still influence the Baltic real estate market.
Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) profiles: --------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
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