As property prices in Lithuania’s main cities are going through the roof, small towns are becoming more attractive options to relocate. Didžiasalis is one such town that is experiencing a ‘renaissance’.
A few years ago, Kristina Pavlava moved from Utena, Lithuania’s 10th biggest town, to the village of Didžiasalis.
Located in the picturesque District of Ignalina, Didžiasalis has a population of just over 1,000 and has had a poor reputation as a declining post-industrial settlement close to the Belarusian border.
Kristina says that before moving to Didžiasalis, she had heard many bad things about the town: that it was unsafe and that there were no jobs. Still, she took the risk. She now works at a local kindergarten and counts the advantages of living here.
“There is a clinic, pharmacies, shops, and plenty of activities for children: a kindergarten and a school. The prices here are not exorbitant. Well, of course, the utility bills are expensive, as they always are everywhere, but it is possible to make a living because people receive compensation and other assistance,” she says.
Didžiasalis has an abundance of apartment blocks – a legacy of its industrial past – and the town authorities offer land plots free of charge so that people can grow their own vegetables.
What attracts newcomers the most is the price of real estate, which is among the lowest in the country and, in some cases, apartments are offered for free.
“Some people leave, others die, nobody wants to take the inheritance. So [the owners] simply give apartments away to someone, for one euro, just to get rid of it, because you still have to pay utilities even if the apartment is empty,” Stasė Ramelienė of the Didžiasalis Municipality, tells LRT TV.
Until 1994, the town was home to a sizeable building materials factory, which attracted workers from all over Lithuania and neighbouring Belarus. The town built many apartment blocks to accommodate them. When the factory closed, people began to leave Didžiasalis en masse, leaving behind empty flats.
A few decades ago, real estate in the town would be sold for next to nothing. Even though prices have since gone up, they are still among the lowest in the country.
For example, 50-square-metre apartments sell for 8,500 euros. Empty apartment blocks are gradually filling up, mostly with young families, people who can work remotely, and seniors from big cities.
Antanas Laurinavičius, manager of the real estate company Namudė, tells LRT TV that Didžiasalis is particularly attractive to retirees from cities like Vilnius. After selling their flat, people can get a decent place in Didžiasalis for a small fraction of the proceeds and live off the rest.
A spike in real estate transactions in Didžiasalis occurred during the Covid pandemic.
