The average housing size in the European Union is 96 m2. However, in the Baltics, an average household must cope with 63–67 m2. A new financial analysis of Baltic households organized by SEB reveals that this is, in part, caused by the fact that only a small rate of people reside in private houses.
n most Central and Eastern European countries, the average size of a household is around 70 m2. In the Baltics, houses with the largest floor space (approx. 67 m2) are located in Estonia. In Latvia and Lithuania, an average household owns a house with an average size of 63 m2, which is the lowest figure after Romania among the Central and Eastern European countries.
Small homes result from the Baltics’ housing stock – among the Central and Eastern European countries, the percentage of private houses is the lowest in this region. While in Croatia, for example, 78 per cent of the population lives in private houses, it is only 36 per cent in Estonia. The rate of people living in private houses is even smaller in Latvia – 35 per cent, and in Lithuania – 41 per cent. In the European Union, an average of approximately 58 per cent of the population lives in a private house.
However, the low percentage of people living in private houses is not caused by the greater urbanization of the Baltics – the number of people living in sparsely population areas is lower in Croatia, which is at the forefront regarding the ownership of private houses. Instead, the reason is the housing policy of the Soviet period – the number of people living in private houses in rural areas amounts only to 60 per cent of the Estonian population. The situation is similar also in Latvia and Lithuania, where respectively, 54 and 67 per cent of the population lives in private houses in rural areas. When compared to the rest of Europe, the number of people living in private houses is low also in cities. While 14 to 15 per cent of households live in private houses in the Baltics, then in the European Union, the average number is 40 per cent.
The rate of people living in private houses is increasing, yet very slowly. Compared to 2005, the number of people living in private houses has increased by 2 per cent in Estonia and by 3.2 per cent in Latvia. In Lithuania, however, the rate of people living in private houses has decreased by 0.5 per cent altogether.
