A survey by Citadele Bank showed that almost a quarter of Estonian residents plan to spend big on home renovations next year, and the same number plan to travel. Funds for major expenses mostly come from savings. :format(webp)/nginx/o/2024/07/11/16214568t1h363f.jpg)
ATMs. The photo is illustrative. Photo: Shutterstock
A survey by Citadele Bank showed that almost a quarter of Estonian residents plan to spend big on home renovations next year, and the same number plan to travel. Funds for major expenses mostly come from savings.
Citadele Bank surveyed residents of the Baltic countries to find out what important purchases they plan to make in the next 12 months. With few exceptions, the responses from residents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were very similar. People plan to spend most of their money on home repairs or improvements. 28% of Estonian residents plan to do this. Almost the same number of respondents – 27% – want to go on a trip.
Many are planning ahead for other major purchases: 16% indicated they plan to purchase new appliances or furniture, 14% plan to buy electronics such as a phone, computer, TV or similar, and 11% are considering buying a new car . 7% would like to buy a new apartment, house or cottage. A fifth of respondents said that they do not plan large purchases or do not know about them in advance.
The shopping plans of Estonian residents are in many ways similar to those of our neighbors, but there were also slight differences. For example, more Lithuanians (18%) would like to buy a new car or travel (32%). “Lithuania's economy has recovered faster than Estonia's and is in better shape – the answers may reflect this,” said Marina Hakiainen, head of retail banking at Citadele's Estonian branch.
“It’s interesting, for example, that in Lithuania people are more actively planning to buy cars – and this is against the backdrop of a plan to introduce a car tax in Estonia, which, according to many, could encourage people to change their car this year. It is quite possible that the financial capabilities of the country’s residents simply do not allow this,” Hakiainen noted.
The majority of Citadele survey respondents (77%) intend to finance these important purchases from their savings. 17% will use a bank loan, and 3% plan to borrow from friends. Hakiainen stressed that it is worth considering expensive purchases in advance and insuring them to avoid losing money: “Although travel insurance is common practice, many are not aware that expensive items can be protected with purchase insurance. Banks also offer various types of insurance cover as part of their payment card packages, so it is worth reading the terms and conditions carefully.”
In May of this year, at the request of the Citadele bank, the research firm Norstat conducted a pan-Baltic study. In each country, 1,000 people aged 18 to 74 were surveyed.
