According to PTT’s housing market forecast, house prices will fall, but there will be no downward spiral. First-time buyers will benefit most from the current housing market situation. The single-family home market is also booming.
There are, of course, regional differences. For example, in the Lahti region, prices of old apartment buildings have been falling for some time.
– Currently, the winner is the first-time home buyer.
A first-time buyer, for example looking for a two-bedroom, can get a good deal, as the supply is growing all the time.
– The supply of apartment buildings will continue to grow even in the next few weeks, because apartment investors have believed that the interest rate will remain at a zero level year after year. The cost structure of many investors has failed, and as a result, old rental apartments are being sold.
Among the big cities, the deepest drop is seen in Helsinki, Turku and Vantaa, where prices are expected to drop by three percent. The price level that preceded the drop will not be reached during this year, but there will not be a downward spiral in prices either.
For this year, OP predicts a steeper price drop than PTT.
Strong demand for detached houses
Heikki Raitanen, sales director of OP Koti Päijät-Häme, says that a single-family home owner should now think about whether they would be able to live in a smaller apartment, because there is a crying shortage of single-family houses in the Lahti and Hämeenlinna area.
– If we have a good single-family house for sale, then about 15 of the 20 buyer families come from the Helsinki area, and the seller of the single-family house gets a good price for his apartment.
There will be a strong buyer base from Helsinki, who have received a good increase in the value of their apartments there.
– For example, in three years there have not been as few single-family houses for sale in Lahti as there are currently.
In PTT’s forecast, the biggest factor raising uncertainty in the housing market is Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and its repercussions on the economic situation.
Below OP Koti Päijät-Häme’s Sales Director Heikki Raitanen in an interview with Markku Lähdetluoma.