Property for sale in Latvia

Is situated on the Baltic Sea coast on the mouth of the river Daugava. Riga is the largest city in the Baltic states. Get more information on property for sale in Riga.

Is a country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region. It is bordered to the north by Estonia (343 km), to the south by Lithuania (588 km), and to the east both by Belarus (141 km) and the Russian Federation (276 km).

Property buyers have been increasingly attracted to the real estate investment opportunities in Latvia’s capital city of Riga since 2000; but with a steady boosting of the local economy from sustainable horizontal foreign direct investment, opportunities are slowly beginning to appear countrywide.

Latvia is a true emerging economy in property investment terms with massive scope for development, for an increase in overseas and local market sector interest, for growing rental yields and for increasing underlying property prices. This is our country guide to Latvia for overseas property buyers.

It’s a confusing and contradictory time in Latvia’s property market at the moment…on the one hand you have undeniable evidence that property prices rose by upwards of 66% on the back of a booming economy, heavy consumer demand and cheap and easy finance in Riga last year - and naturally, this draws property investor’s keen interest. But on the other hand you have the likes of economist Uldis Osis suggesting that banks may begin to restrict financing at a time when affordability is already tight.

The bottom line is probably this – if you like Latvia and you’re addicted to its investment property returns you’re going to need to take a long term approach towards future profitability. For one thing the government has pushed through tax plans that will see capital gains taxed on the resale of real estate held for less than three years, and for another thing, if affordability gets much tighter there will be less of a resale audience for any investor looking to sell up anyway. One plus point though – if you have buy to let real estate, if fewer people can afford to buy you’ll have a growing potential tenant base!

Financial services, retailers and telecommunications companies in particular have established permanent foreign enterprise bases in Latvia creating permanent employment opportunities and bringing permanent direct investment into the country. This means that the roots for long term economic development and success in Latvia have been firmly planted.

This is fundamental to the long term prospects of the investment property market in Latvia, because for there to exist room for growth in the market the demand for real estate has to be strong and local purchasing power needs to keep growing. Latvia is an attractive country for tourism, but in terms of reselling residential real estate, a current property buyer’s future customer is most likely to be a local resident whose purchasing power has increased.