Apartments 40 times cheaper in Kiviõli than Tallinn

A comparison of last year's apartment prices in Estonia reveals a massive price difference between the capital and peripheral regions. If in Tallinn, the average price per square meter of apartments came close to €3,500, it was just €83 in the industrial small city of Kiviõli. Transactions activity fell in the second half-year.
Estonia saw around 61,000 real estate transactions worth a combined €5.8 billion last year most of which for purchase and sale. This constitutes a drop of around 11,000 transactions compared to 2021, Land Board statistics reveal.
Transactions involving apartments numbered 25,126, with the average flat sold coming in at 55.1 square meters. The average price per square meter was €1,904 for a considerable hike from the €1,568 average price the year before last.
The apartments market was the busiest in Harju County where the average price came to €2,682 per square meter and flat size to 58 square meters.
Flats were considerably more expensive in Tallinn as removing the capital from the statistics immediately drops the average price to €1,287.
The most expensive transaction also took place in Tallinn, with a City Center flat selling for €1.6 million. The average price per square meter was €2,885 in Tallinn, with the City Center and Põhja-Tallinn districts sporting average prices in the €3,000-3,500 range. Prices were also high in the districts of Pirita, Kristiine and Haabersti.
The so-called sleeping districts of Lasnamäe and Mustamäe had the cheapest apartment prices in the Estonian capital, with the price per square meter dropping below €2,500.
The most expensive after Tallinn was the neighboring Rae Municipality, where the average flat fetched a price of €2,631 per square meter, followed by Viimsi and Jõelähtme municipalities at around €2,500.
The city of Loksa has the cheapest apartments in Harju County, with the average price of apartments coming to €596 per square meter in 2022. Transactions totaled 64. The square meter price also remained below €1,000 in Kuusalu, Lääne-Harju, Anija and Kose municipalities.
Apartments were also more expensive in Tartu County that saw 3,557 transactions of purchase and sale and the average price at €2,035 per square meter. Pärnu County flats fetched €1,580 per square meter on average.
Prices were highest in the city of Tartu where over 2,500 transactions of purchase and sale were handled and the average price reached €2,217. This dropped to a little under €2,000 in the neighboring Luunja and Tartu municipalities, while the remote Peipsiääre Municipality saw an average price of just €384 per square meter.
Real estate prices in Valga County stand in sharp contrast to Tallinn and Tartu, with the average price of 375 total transactions at just €340 per square meter. The prices were highest in Otepää Municipality (€817) and lowest in Tõrva and Valga municipalities (€240 and €281 respectively).
Flats in Jõgeva County fetched €381 per square meter and those in Ida-Viru County €349 per square meter on average.
The cheapest apartments were on offer in the city of Kiviõli in Ida-Viru County where a square meter of living space cost just €83 and transactions totaled 141. This rose to €88 in the city of Püssi. The resort city of Narva-Jõesuu saw the highest prices in the county at €957. Next came the city of Narva with 908 transactions and an average price of €548.
The real estate market was the most active in the city of Kohtla-Järve that was the only Ida-Viru County city to see more than 1,000 transactions, while the average price was just €182.
January and February were the slowest months for real estate transactions at a little over 4,500, while market activity peaked in May for over 6,300. The monthly record in Estonia of over 7,000 apartment sold is from May of last year.
Most transactions (around 1,600) involved buildings constructed in 1940-1990, while 201 were for buildings completed after 2020. Apartment buildings from 2011-2015 fetched the highest price per square meter.
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Editor: Marcus Turovski