RIGA, Oct 17 (LETA) - The supply of standard-design apartments in Riga has almost doubled, with significant increase in the third quarter this year, Luminor Bank representatives reported.

The supply of apartments of different sizes has increased, the bank representatives said.

Luminor bank representative Kaspars Sausais said that as the winter season comes, the number of apartments available in the Soviet-era standard-design apartments is increasing. In the past two quarters, there is the biggest rise in the supply of four-room and three-room apartments.

Sausais said that residents before the heating season starts try to change their apartments to smaller ones or sell a second apartment that so far had been rented or was not used.

The bank's data suggest that people want to buy compact apartments which means lower utilities costs. At the same time, other important aspects are the quality of the building, energy efficiency, etc.

Since the beginning of this year, most of transactions with apartments of standard design have been registered in Purvciems and Kengarags suburbs, followed by Imanta and Plavnieki.

Even though development of new projects and renovations are steeper than before, construction of new residential houses cannot replace the old ones. According to the Central Statistical Bureau, about 40 percent of residential houses in Riga are 42-61 years old and 21 percent are 22-41 years old, while 9 percent of residential houses have been built after 2000.

The Latvian branch of Luminor Bank is the fourth largest bank in Latvia by assets.