The Lithuanian Real Estate Development Association (LNTPA) is an open organisation uniting and representing real estate developers and actively contributing to sustainable urbanisation. In our work, we are guided by several key principles and ideas that we believe are important for the development of cities and communities and for the business environment.
Affordable housing. A comprehensible housing market should provide the choice of residence that meets person’s needs and possibilities. It combines both owned and rented housing alternatives. Therefore, LNTPA supports different forms of housing, municipal housing, and the regulated long-term rental market.
Municipal housing. Municipally owned housing is important for long-term rental opportunities. The city could rent part of the housing for a special price to professionals in the fields most needed by the city. Such a practice is common in many Western European countries, allowing city residents to ensure legal and safe long-term rent, whereas the rearrangement or reconstruction of such a housing stock is much simpler and quickly organised as needed by the city.
Legal housing rental market. According to expert assessments, legally rented housing currently accounts for only 1/6 of the total rental market. This leads to an uncivilised rental market, unsecured lawful interests of landlords and tenants, lost taxes to the state and lack of rental culture. LNTPA seeks for the introduction of more incentives for the formation of a Western housing rental culture, involvement of business companies in the rental market, and establishment of modern student housing and co-living projects. The Association, together with its partners, conducts public surveys on tolerance within a society towards illegal rental markets.
Different forms of housing. With changing lifestyles, more and more people work remotely and choose more exciting forms of life. LNTPA advocates and supports the regulation of more diverse forms of life than the mere currently envisaged housing.
Sustainable land planning and infrastructure management. We support the continuous improvement of the legislation governing land planning, taking into account the dynamic change in urbanised areas, the need for conversion and the number of excessive procedures. We are one of the initiators in drafting the Law on Municipal Infrastructure, which defines clear rights and obligations for the initiators and managers of infrastructure construction, as well as the principles of sharing the costs of new infrastructures.
Modern standardisation of construction. In practice, there is a systemic problem related to outdated construction regulations that do not meet the pace of modern construction and technologies. Therefore, we provide proposals for their improvement building on existing experience of local developers and foreign practice.
Uniform and universal real estate tax. In order to achieve a clear and reasonable valuation of property, LNTPA, together with other business associations (Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists and Investors’ Forum), offers to introduce a uniform real estate tax ending the existing numerous exemptions.
Mobility and car parking. As the number of vehicles in the country grows and cities become denser, most of the streets in the country appear to be inadequate for increased traffic flows. LNTPA proposes to monitor changes in mobility in the city on an ongoing basis and to apply dynamic measures – promote motor transport alternatives, electric cars, expand public transport network, lower the standards for mandatory parking spaces in the centre and surrounding areas by offering, instead, incentives for mobility packages (transport services, rental of bicycles and scooters, taxi services, etc.).
Monitoring and improvement of the business environment. Permanent monitoring of legal acts considered by the central government and local authorities and making proposals regarding the improvement of legal acts on the business environment; cooperation with the Seimas and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, responsible ministries and their subordinate institutions, and municipalities; active work towards involving other stakeholders (business associations, communities) in this process.
LNTPA EXPERTISE
Conference for professionals. Annual CORE conferences for real estate market professionals are organised in February. See more on Core conference.
Expectation index. Every year LNTPA, together with its partners, carries out a survey of developers about their expectations for the coming year.
Activities of Kaunas city unit of the Association involve periodic events and meetings to address issued related to Kaunas city development.
Regular meetings with the leaders of the Vilnius City Municipality: meetings with the political leaders and administration of the Vilnius City Municipality on issues relevant to business and society in the area of city development.
Competition “For Sustainable Development”. Every year (since 2007), ten independent architects, urban planners and researchers select the best real estate projects in different categories. All the participants of the competition are given prominence in the media and the best of them are awarded a crystal figurine with a silver star.
Housing Fair. The Housing Fair is held in Vilnius twice a year. During the Housing Fair, open lectures are held on topics useful to home buyers, real estate developers and credit institutions introduce new projects, and consultations with interior designers and real estate lawyers take place.
Demographic research. LNTPA, together with the Lithuanian Social Research Centre regularly conducts demographic research and provides the latest forecasts for the future.
PropTech initiative: meetings held between real estate developers and real estate technology (PropTech) communities to promote and enhance the understanding of technological innovation in the real estate market.
Cognitive professional tours: tours to foreign countries to see the best practices of urban development and management, architectural and urban solutions. Tours already organised include Amsterdam (the Netherlands) (2014), Copenhagen/Malmö (Denmark/Sweden) (2017), London (United Kingdom) (2018), New York (USA) (2018) Toronto (Canada) (2019).
Training: targeted thematic events for the members of the Association with lawyers and other professionals working in the field of real estate. Business breakfasts are held on a regular basis on issues relevant to the community of real estate developers in the area of law, real estate marketing and other topics.
Podcasts. Periodic interviews with real estate market participants featuring information on the real estate market and current events. Follow the YouTube channel and Facebook page.