Housing prices to rise faster than wages in 2026

The June 2026 reading of the “Ober-Haus” Lithuanian Apartment Price Index (OHBI), which tracks apartment price changes in Lithuania’s five largest cities — Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys — increased by 1.0%. Over the past 12 months, the overall apartment price level in Lithuania’s major cities rose by 12.5%, compared with annual growth of 12.2% in May 2026.

In June 2026, apartment sale prices in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys increased by 0.9%, 1.1%, 0.6%, 1.4% and 2.3%, respectively. The average price per square metre reached €3,092 (+€26/m²) in Vilnius, €2,230 (+€24/m²) in Kaunas, €2,000 (+€13/m²) in Klaipėda, €1,389 (+€20/m²) in Šiauliai and €1,359 (+€30/m²) in Panevėžys.

Over the year, comparing June 2026 with June 2025, apartment prices increased in all of Lithuania’s major cities: 11.7% in Vilnius, 15.8% in Kaunas, 10.1% in Klaipėda, 14.6% in Šiauliai and 14.0% in Panevėžys.

“The first half of this year was characterised by very high levels of housing market activity and rapid growth in sale prices. Although the annual rate of apartment price growth in the country’s major cities has stabilised at around 12.0–12.5% this year, this still means that apartment prices are rising faster than household incomes in 2026. In other words, even if apartment prices were to remain unchanged during the second half of the year, the average annual price growth in the country’s major cities would still exceed the projected growth in wages of 7.5–8.5%.

According to the State Enterprise Centre of Registers, 7% fewer apartments were purchased across Lithuania in June than in May this year, but 12% more than in June last year. Comparing the first half of 2026 with the same period in 2025, almost 3% more apartments were purchased in total. This indicates that overall housing market activity remains at a high level and has even increased slightly following the particularly strong market recovery in 2025.

However, rapidly rising housing prices are limiting some buyers’ ability to purchase higher-quality homes. For example, in the capital, where the supply of new apartments is the largest and price levels are the highest, the primary market recorded the lowest number of agreements for new apartment purchases in the past 20 months this June. While an average of around 560 apartments per month were agreed for purchase between January and May 2026, this figure fell to 320 in June. The results of the coming months should provide a clearer indication of whether this is only a temporary slowdown in the new-build housing market or whether buyers are already beginning to feel the burden of rising housing prices more acutely,” says Raimondas Reginis, Head of Market Research for the Baltic States at “Ober-Haus”.