Lithuania

Lithuania’s housing market is defined by high levels of home ownership: in 2024, about 87.4% of the population owned their homes, leaving roughly 12.6% renting. Median purchase prices in mid-2025 are around 2,768 euros per square meter in Vilnius, 1,926 euros/sqm in Kaunas, and 1,816 euros/sqm in Klaipėda, with slightly lower prices in other cities. The annual apartment price growth in large cities was between 5.8% and 8.4%. Median rent levels are not systematically published at the national level, but average rents in Vilnius for a typical apartment stand near 12–16 euros per sqm per month.

Publicly owned housing plays a limited role in Lithuania’s housing landscape, representing a very small share of the total housing stock (around 2–3%). Public housing is not the same as social housing; social housing is a subset of public housing provided to individuals who meet strict social or income criteria, mainly managed by municipalities in larger cities like Vilnius. The difference lies in allocation—public housing refers to all municipally owned dwellings, while social housing is distributed based on social need. Overall, public intervention in the housing market is minimal, reflecting the dominant culture of owner-occupation.

Lithuania’s housing crisis centers on limited access to affordable housing for vulnerable groups, despite rising sales and prices in key cities. Apartment prices in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Klaipėda have increased by 5.8% to 8.4% annually, with the average two-room older apartment in Vilnius now costing about €109,000. Homebuyers benefit from falling mortgage interest rates, yet faster price growth risks eroding affordability, especially as incomes often lag behind housing costs.

There is no overall shortage of housing units, but affordable rental and social housing are severely undersupplied. Social housing accounts for only a small fraction of the market, mostly confined to municipalities in larger cities. As a result, individuals and families with low incomes, those at risk of poverty, young families, large families, orphans, the handicapped, and elderly with special needs are disproportionately affected.

Homelessness remains a visible consequence—shelter capacity is insufficient, and there is no systemic use of the private rental sector to support those with low incomes. Rent prices remain out of reach for many, and official regulation or interventions for the vulnerable are limited. Quality and adequacy issues are less pressing than sheer accessibility. The crisis is felt most by those with unstable income, the unemployed, youth, and marginalized groups unable to meet strict social housing criteria, leaving many pushed into temporary or substandard accommodation.

The Lithuanian national government acknowledges affordability and sustainability as priorities for the housing sector but, as of 2025, has not implemented major new national policies specifically to boost the supply of affordable or sustainable housing. Affordable housing access remains a significant public and policy concern, especially for vulnerable and lower-income groups amid continuous price rises. However, most interventions are incremental and focus on supporting municipalities and aligning with broader EU commitments on energy efficiency.

Recent targets communicated by the government emphasize supporting low-income families and improving housing energy efficiency, with recommendations outlined in partnership with the OECD and EU frameworks. Key activities include providing subsidies to municipalities for social housing renewal and new constructions, supporting energy renovation of multi-apartment buildings to raise sustainability, and offering targeted assistance for vulnerable households such as housing benefits and limited rental subsidies.

There are no major national supply-side initiatives or quotas for new public or social housing, and the state’s approach is still characterized by a limited direct role, with municipalities responsible for most social housing programs. The main lever for sustainability is encouraging energy performance upgrades in the housing stock, using a combination of EU structural funds and national co-financing for renovation works. Financial support instruments to help vulnerable groups access housing are under ongoing review but remain modest in scale. No new large-scale national construction programs for affordable housing have been announced up to late 2025.

Housing cooperatives play a minimal role in Lithuania’s housing sector, and the share of cooperative housing within the total housing stock is negligible. There are no official statistics quantifying the proportion of cooperative housing units, but available government and registry data do not indicate any substantive presence of the model. The dominant form of tenure in Lithuania remains owner-occupation, while public and social housing—managed mainly by municipalities—accounts for only a small fraction of all dwellings, and cooperative housing is not separately tracked or promoted at the national level.

The development of the cooperative housing sector in Lithuania is stagnant with no major initiatives, programs, or regulatory frameworks specifically aiming to foster cooperative models. Existing government activity in the housing sector focuses predominantly on incremental improvements in social housing and energy efficiency measures, through subsidies and EU-backed renovation projects, rather than on new supply systems or alternative tenures. Policy efforts mainly support municipalities with social housing construction, energy renovations, and targeted benefits for low-income groups. National policies currently do not prioritize or actively promote cooperative housing, and the cooperative approach does not feature within stated national housing objectives or reported housing statistics.