OREANDA-NEWS. June 10, 2014. 65 per cent of Lithuanian housewives and women on maternity leave would agree to renovate their flat in the multi-flat house or advice to do it for their family members. Least positive minded towards renovation, as in the past, remain retirees.

Of these, a little more than 40 per cent would agree to renovate their home. Such data was disclosed after a public opinion surveys conducted by research company Vilmorus ordered by Siauliu bankas.

Surveys of the Lithuanians living in the major cities and towns revealed that almost half of them (49 per cent) support the renovation, and three more per cent are still undecided. Most of all disposed to renovation are Kaunas, Klaipeda, Siauliai and Panevezys residents (54 per cent), least – those who live in rural areas (46 per cent).

“As a bank, to which most of the population having decided to modernize their home come, we can confirm that number of those interested is increasing every year, the unreasonable fears, which were heard at the beginning of the renovation project, are decreasing. A few years ago only about one-third of the Lithuanians wanted to upgrade their housing, but in the last few years, this number is rapidly growing,” said Vytautas Sinius, head of administration of Siauliu bankas.

The main reason that forces residents to think about housing modernization is the incentive to pay lower heating bills. This argument for renovation was raised by as much as 78 per cent of the respondents. The second most popular reason is better housing (44 per cent). In addition, the Lithuanians have been begun to motivate not only by practical renovation pros, but also by aesthetic: about one-third of the respondents said that they would agree to renovate housing to have more beautiful home exterior. Slightly more than one-tenth of Lithuanians are encouraged for renovation by positive experience of their familiar persons.

According to V.Sinius, though there is much information about the renovations and its conditions publicized in the last years, there are still people who have certain negative attitudes or unanswered questions regarding this topic. According to the survey, from the opposing to renovation of housing 64 per cent believe that such investment is too expensive and will not be recoverable, 25 per cent are afraid of building defects, and 24 per cent state that they do not have enough information to decide.

According to the data possessed by Environment Ministry, there are currently about 481 contracts for the renovation of multi-flat houses signed throughout Lithuania. Of these, nearly a third, i.e. 210 contracts are signed with Siauliu bankas, and the amount of these contracts is in excess of LTL 110 million.

Representative survey if Lithuanian population was conducted in May of 2014. It interviewed 1002 country’s residents aged over 18.