In the coming year, every fourth resident of Lithuania plans to renovate his dwelling - to carry out repairs, to insulate the walls of the premises or to purchase new furniture and technical equipment. Reasons to renovate homes vary; however, the most common indicates that the Lithuanian dwellings have worn out significantly.

To find out what consumer needs are most frequently satisfied using borrowed funds Šiaulių Bankas ordered a public opinion survey. Its results showed that housing refurbishment lies among most important financial priorities.

'We have found out that for most Lithuanians it is important to live in cozy and modern house. As the main reason for refurbishment of dwellings the residents mention its wear off - in the long run home loses its original appearance and specialists recommend to essentially renew the place once in ten years, whereas the cosmetic repairs and replacement of some furniture or equipment are recommended to be carried out every two or three years. Refurbishment obviously requires a significant investment - the costs of repair services are recently growing, the price of construction and finishing materials is rising as well, therefore, a consumer credit is often taken to finance this process. According to Šiaulių Bankas, the average amount borrowed by the Lithuanians for this purpose amounts to 5,800 euros, the sum does not differ much in big cities or smaller towns ', says Goda Butkienė, Director of Financial Services Development Department of Šiaulių Bankas.

According to G. Butkiene, housing repair is one of the main reasons pointed out by the bank's customers taking a consumer credit.

Most of the respondents (38%) claim that their houses have not been repaired for a long time and, therefore, they require refurbishment. This reason has been most frequently mentioned by people over the age of 46. The population survey suggests that houses in rural areas, district centres, and smaller towns have not been renovated for a long time - in big cities this problem is less relevant.

As many as a fifth of the respondents say they just want to update and modernize the living environment. Such an argument for renewal of housing is mostly provided by participants aged 26-45.

Due to the changed needs of cohabitants or increased number of people living together, housing renovation is mainly planned by younger respondents who are up to 35.

'Younger people tend to look for innovations and react to the latest trends in interior design. In addition, it's natural that young families are more likely to rearrange their houses - larger families are facing new additional needs such as equipment children's rooms or purchase of new furniture', said G. Butkienė. By the way, the renewal of dwelling based on a single desire to change has been more often specified by men (24%) than by women (20%).

The survey showed that women are more practical - a quarter of them acknowledge that houses are being renovated in order to save energy (new windows, more economical heating equipment, etc.).

The opinion survey was carried out in May this year at the request of Šiaulių Bankas. The residents from all regions of the country whose age varied from 18 to 75 took part in the survey and a total of 1,005 respondents were interviewed.

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Siauliu Bankas AB published this content on 16 August 2018 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 16 August 2018 13:10:06 UTC