28th May 2026
Experts agree that Lithuania’s rental housing market is insufficiently regulated, and this disproportionately affects vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities, families with children, single parents, and people who have moved to Lithuania from other countries. Experiences from other countries show that there are ways to address these challenges, and not all of them require significant investment.
Housing Is Not Just a Commodity but a Human Right
According to a sociologist at Vilnius University dr. Tadas Šarūnas, housing in Lithuania is viewed too narrowly—as a commodity—and the rental housing market is characterised by a clear imbalance of power in favour of landlords:
“Housing is treated as if it were just another commodity rather than a place where people build their homes and sense of security. The only guarantees tenants have are those explicitly written into the tenancy agreement, and if those are breached, their only real option is to go to court,” he notes.
Tadas Šarūnas.
The Director of Lithuanian Anti-Poverty Network Aistė Adomavičienė points out that even obtaining a formal tenancy agreement is far from guaranteed. A large informal housing market has developed, and it disproportionately affects socially vulnerable people:
“The informal rental housing market is not merely an economic issue. Due to the shortage of social housing, people in Lithuania wait several years for social housing, depending on the municipality. That is a very long time. The main alternative for socially vulnerable people who cannot buy a home or afford market rents is a housing benefit to help cover rent—provided they can find a landlord who does not discriminate against prospective tenants because of their social status, disability, or other characteristics. Even when people do find housing, many cannot receive housing benefits because landlords refuse to sign formal tenancy agreements.”
Aistė Adomavičienė. Photo by Berta Tilmantaitė.
According to A. Adomavičienė, the informal rental housing market also makes it impossible to accurately assess the size of the rental housing market itself:
“We do not know how many people rent housing, nor what proportion of the housing market operates informally. Essentially, we have only a few concrete figures: the Centre of Registers reports around 20,000 officially registered tenancy agreements; approximately 12,000 individuals or families live in social housing, while another 10,000 individuals or families are waiting for it.”
Rental Housing Market Regulation Should Be Smart
According to T. Šarūnas, regulating the rental housing market does not necessarily require expensive measures. The first steps could be taken without significant public spending:
“The essential and relatively inexpensive first step is legislation—a Housing Act establishing clear rules for how the housing market should function, providing safeguards for both landlords and tenants, and setting out mechanisms for resolving disputes. For example, in Germany landlords are legally prohibited from increasing rent during the term of a tenancy agreement. In France and Belgium landlords cannot evict tenants—even those who have fallen behind on rent—during the winter months. These are examples of good practice that Lithuania could adopt.”
A. Adomavičienė emphasises that rental housing market regulation should be designed systematically rather than focusing on individual groups without considering wider consequences:
“A good example of poorly designed regulation is the legal protection preventing families with children from being evicted directly onto the street. While stricter eviction procedures were intended to protect these families, in practice they have become a red flag for landlords. Knowing that any dispute over rent payments or other issues could end up in court, many landlords simply choose not to rent to families with children.”
Municipalities Should Play a Greater Role in the Rental Housing Market
According to T. Šarūnas, the next step is more costly but highly effective when combined with legislative reform:
“Lithuania needs a larger stock of social housing. This requires investment, but it fundamentally changes how the rental housing market operates. When municipalities own and rent out sufficient housing, they can set standards for rental conditions and genuinely meet residents’ housing needs. If municipalities become major landlords, many of the risks common in an unregulated housing market—such as unexpected termination of a tenancy agreement or rent increases during the tenancy—are significantly reduced.”
According to A. Adomavičienė, Norway provides one example of a more responsible approach:
“Municipalities have a legal obligation to ensure that residents have access to housing. If no social housing is immediately available, the municipality provides temporary accommodation in a hotel until suitable long-term housing becomes available.”
According to sociologist T. Šarūnas, forms of housing that are common and socially accepted elsewhere—such as social or municipal housing—are still associated in Lithuania with poverty and financial hardship:
“In countries such as Austria, the Netherlands and Denmark, living in social housing is perfectly normal regardless of one’s social status. It is not viewed as an indicator of financial hardship. At certain stages of life, people may simply not want to own property, may be uncertain about their future plans, may not wish to be tied to one location, or may prefer not to commit to a long-term mortgage. Unfortunately, in Lithuania the only real alternative is an unregulated rental housing market that offers very few guarantees.”
If You Experience Discrimination