The study asked all respondents what is most important to them when choosing a home. 89% of respondents named the price as the most important factor. Only slightly fewer, 86%, emphasised the location in the city, while 80% - the construction quality.
For Vilnius residents, location was more important than to Kaunas residents. In the capital, this criterion was specified by 88% of respondents, while in Kaunas – 77%. Šarūnas Tarutis, head of investment and analysis at Citus found such results unsurprising. Vilnius residents, who plan to purchase a home, know that they no longer want to spend long hours after work in traffic jams; work as taxi drivers, ferrying their children to and from their schools and kindergartens; they also prioritise living closer to the city centre or in locations with well developed infrastructure. Meanwhile, Kaunas residents place more emphasis on their home’s proximity to objects of importance to them – education and healthcare institutions, retail and leisure locations.
The lower emphasis on the location is compensated by residents of the temporary capital through greater demands on infrastructure – kindergartens, schools, retail centres close to home. In the Kaunas residents’ list of choices, it takes 6th place (55%), while for Vilnius residents – 9th (49%).
“In Kaunas, the most important objects are relatively close to the centre, thus the time spent on travelling is significantly shorter and people find the location to be less important than Vilnius residents. Furthermore, Kaunas is still tough to surpass in the private house segment, thus people there think more of how much space they can obtain for a specific sum and are overall more sensitive to the price,” Š. Tarutis comments.
An interesting aspect: Kaunas residents, while less sensitive to the price of apartments, place significantly more attention on financing conditions – the size of the deposit, payment distribution and such. Citus’ head of investment and analysis explains this to be due to differing paying habits: Vilnius residents purchase homes far more rarely than Kaunas residents through cash or savings, instead taking a home loan, thus, he explains, in the capital these aspects are less important.
Another criterion is the decoration level (with full decoration or without any) and it is more important to purchasers in Kaunas (41%) and less so in the capital (32%). Š. Tarutis associates this difference with financial purchase conditions and sensitivity to pricing: a fully decorated house requires a smaller initial deposit, while when decorating yourself, a lower overall price is expected.
Both cities’ residents, who are purchasing homes, ranked the opportunity to park their cars after working hours fourth (65% in Vilnius and 70% in Kaunas), after them follow home maintenance costs and energy class (54% in Vilnius and 57% in Kaunas).
The importance of maintenance costs should decline even further due to rising building energy efficiency, which leads to relatively low expenses compared to the costs associated to car parking – rental or purchase in the overall home budget. Currently, all planned residential homes have to adhere to no less than the A+ energy class and from 2021, this requirement will reach its highest level – it will be mandatory to plan only A++ class buildings. As such, energy efficiency, thus also maintenance costs, will become an increasingly irrelevant question. At least among new home buyers.
The price of car parking lots should grow due to lifestyle changes in the large cities: the rise in car sharing service popularity, project concentration closer to the city centre, limited space, expensive underground parking construction, lower demand for personal transportation, convenient public transport and increased pricing of car parking in the Old Town.
The situation is more complicated regarding parking opportunities. On one hand, with the capital increasingly discussing restrictions of vehicle entry into the Old Town and parking limitations in it, as well as with significantly risen parking prices, city residents are becoming accustomed to it. On the other hand, the city is becoming denser, the number of cars is rising, thus the problem of parking is becoming more significant. These factors influence the rise in car parking prices. They can be resolved by gradually developing existing and newly emerging sharing, harmonious mobility opportunities.
Different cities – different buyer needs
One of the largest differences between the two cities’ residents emerges through evaluations of the view out of one’s window. This criterion is ranked 6th in Vilnius, while in Kaunas – only 11th. In the capital, it is more important due to intensive construction works and the rising city density, particularly in cases, where constructions begin under one’s windows unexpectedly.
The reliability and recognition of the project developer is important to 34% of Vilnius residents and 38% of Kaunas residents. In the temporary capital, due to lower competition, expectations for a developer’s reputation are lower than in Vilnius.
The level of a home’s decoration remains in 12th place because the demand for homes with full decoration is only still growing. 13th place goes to the criterion of move-in date and project completion level. Its low position can be explained by even flats under construction are being resolutely purchased. Due to the especially active market in the large cities, more than half of the projects being sold are not finished building.
Meanwhile, the least important criteria were friends and acquaintances’ recommendations and the sales manager service. Differences between the cities are only slight in this: in Vilnius, they are important to respectively 14 and 9% of respondents, while in Kaunas – 13% of respondents each.
Direct and indirect answers differ
When analysing the study’s results, specialists at Spinter Tyrimai noticed that with different means of asking the same question about home choice criteria, results came to differ.
“When asking spontaneously, respondents mentioned one set of criteria, however when offering options, some respondents changed their minds and chose slightly different priorities, which they might not have previously considered when answering intuitively,” the research company’s head, sociologist Ignas Zokas comments.
When asked to highlight criteria of relevance to them, which would encourage to purchase a home from a specific company, respondents seemingly were premeditated in rating quality (14.5%), reliability and good reputation (13%), housing projects in attractive locations (11.3%) and professionalism (19.1%). The surveyed residents of the large cities found the least important criteria to be the speed of work (8.6%) and lowest home price (3.1%).
On commission from the company Citus, in October 2019, the company Spinter Tyrimai surveyed 513 residents of Vilnius and Kaunas, who obtained their own home over the past 5 years or plan to do so over the coming 3 years. The survey was performed online, presenting an electronic answer sheet.
Facts and numbers
Overall, the most important criteria for home seekers in Vilnius and Kaunas are:
- Price – 88.5% of respondents,
- Location in the city – 85.6%
- Construction quality – 79.7%
- Parking opportunities – 66.3%
- Maintenance costs, energy class – 55.0%
- Infrastructure (distance to schools, kindergartens, shopping centres) - 50.5%
- Window view – 49.3%
- Balcony, terrace – 48.9%
- Planning (spacious or compact apartment, specific number of rooms) - 48.5%
- Financial purchase conditions (initial deposit size, payment distribution, bank financing) - 42.3%
- Company reputation (the developer’s reliability and recognition) - 37.0%
- Decoration level (Full decoration or none) - 33.7%
- Moving in date, project completion level (under construction, constructed building) - 18.9%
- Friends, acquaintances’ recommendation – 13.8%
- Sales manager service – 9.6%.
Individually, in Vilnius and Kaunas, the most important criteria for home seekers are:
- Price: Vilnius – 88.0%, Kaunas – 90.3% of respondents,
- Location in the city: Vilnius – 87.8%, Kaunas – 76.7%
- Construction quality: Vilnius – 80.5%, Kaunas – 76.7%
- Parking opportunities: Vilnius – 65.4%, Kaunas – 69.9%
- Maintenance costs, energy class: Vilnius – 54.4%, Kaunas – 57.3%
