Individuals and companies in Latvia are increasingly buying cars. Last year almost 18,300 passenger cars were purchased by people in the country. Most of the purchased cars were used cars. The buyers are now frequently visiting non-bank lending companies. They are making decisions after making a comparison on several types of credit scores.
In the light vehicle segment, people had purchased 3.9% more cars in 2018 as compared to 2017. In September of 2019, the buying percentage has crossed a total of 2018. The same trend is observed in legal entities. The annual growth of 0.2% is reaching 2.8% as compared to the last year.
The people are choosing cars that have an average life of at least 14 years and they are visiting car rental companies to get flexible offers. A number of people and companies are choosing to buy a passenger car which is causing the annual fixed loan interest rates to fall. And the number of loans is increasing for the leasing car segment.
According to the experts, the car leasing service will continuously improve in Latvia because the number of car leasing companies and customers are increasing.
As of January 2019, there were 707,841 light vehicles registered in Latvia, which includes 639,239 light vehicles purchased by the natural persons, and legal persons bought 68,602 light vehicles. Loan experts have found that people are not choosing to buy the latest models of cars in the showroom. In fact, they are choosing those cars that have been used by several landlords for many years.
This trend is also reflecting on the statistics of passenger cars purchased and registered.