Most guides tell you what rate to expect. That is the wrong question. Before any bank quotes you anything, three numbers set by the Bank of Lithuania decide whether you can borrow at all, and how much. They are not negotiable, not per-bank, and all three were amended on 1 August 2026.
A first-home buyer now needs 10% down, from 15%; everyone else 15%, and a second or subsequent housing loan 30%. Your monthly instalment may not exceed 50% of your income, tested against a rate of at least 6% rather than the one you are offered. Maximum term 30 years.
Nothing in those rules turns on your passport. What your passport can affect is whether you may own the land a house stands on โ a different question, and the one that catches people out.
Table of Contents
The Three Numbers That Decide It
Nothing on this page is paid placement. We have no commercial relationship with any of the five
banks below, we are not a credit provider and not a credit intermediary, and we take no
applications โ there is deliberately no form here. Which banks appear, and in what order, is an
editorial decision. Links to lenders route through our own /go/ redirect so we can
count clicks; they earn us nothing.
Lithuania regulates mortgage lending through the Responsible Lending Regulations (Atsakingojo skolinimo nuostatai), issued by the Bank of Lithuania. They bind the lender, not you โ but the effect is absolute: a bank that breaks them is breaking financial regulation, and none will lend outside these limits because you asked nicely.
Loan-to-value: how much of the price the bank will lend
| Your situation | Maximum loan | Deposit you need |
|---|---|---|
| First home. Neither you nor a co-borrower owns residential property, or has owned any in the last 5 years | 90% of value | 10% |
| A first mortgage, but not a first home. You own property already, or owned some recently | 85% of value | 15% |
| A second or subsequent housing loan | 70% of value | 30% |
| โฆthe same, where more than half of each existing housing loan is repaid | 85% of value | 15% |
Read the first row carefully: it changed, and it is stricter than "have you had a mortgage before". The test is ownership, not borrowing. An apartment you inherited and sold four years ago disqualifies you from the 10% tier even if you have never taken a loan, and so does a share in a property abroad.
Debt service to income: how much you can afford, in the regulator's opinion
Your total monthly credit payments โ this mortgage plus other loans, leasing and credit-card limits โ may not exceed 50% of your sustainable income.
The trap is that the bank does not compute that against the rate it is offering you. It must use a rate of at least 6%. On a 30-year loan that cuts the amount you can borrow substantially, and it is the commonest reason a foreigner with a good salary is offered far less than expected.
This is why the bank's answer differs from every online calculator
Most mortgage calculators โ including several run by Lithuanian property portals โ size the loan from the payment at the quoted rate. The regulator requires the payment at 6%. A calculator that does not stress-test is not giving you the number the bank will use, and the gap is not small.
One relief is not yours to claim: a lender may go up to 60% DSTI on at most 5% of the new mortgages it writes in a year. That is an allowance for the bank's book, not an entitlement. Do not plan around it.
Maturity: 30 years, and it has been for a decade
The maximum repayment period is 30 years, down from 40 in 2015 and unchanged in 2026. Banks apply their own age limits on top, which the regulator does not set and which are not uniform.
What Changed on 1 August 2026
If you researched Lithuanian mortgages before August 2026, some of what you learned is now wrong โ in your favour on one point and against you on another.
Almost every English-language guide still describes the old regime. Check the date on anything you read, including this page.
| To 31 July 2026 | From 1 August 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit, first home | 15% | 10% |
| Deposit, second or later loan | 30% | 30%, or 15% if more than half repaid |
| DSTI cap | 40% at the contract rate and 50% stress-tested | a single 50% cap |
| Stress-test rate | 5% | 6% |
| Maximum term | 30 years | 30 years โ unchanged |
Two changes pull in opposite directions, which is the point of the reform. The deposit on a first home fell by a third, so the cash needed up front dropped sharply; but the stress rate rose from 5% to 6%, so the income needed to service the same loan went up. A first-time buyer short on savings is better off; one short on income is not.
The old dual DSTI test is gone โ do not apply both
Until 31 July 2026 two DSTI tests ran together and both had to be satisfied: 40% at the contract rate, and 50% at a 5% stress rate. From 1 August 2026 there is one test, at 50% and 6%. A source telling you your instalment must be under 40% of your salary is describing a rule that no longer exists.
Can a Foreigner Borrow Here At All?
Yes โ and the regulations above say nothing about nationality. The loan-to-value ceilings, the DSTI cap and the maturity limit apply to the lender for every borrower it has. There is no foreigner tier, no foreigner deposit and no foreigner rate in the rules.
What changes with your passport is something else, and conflating the two is the biggest source of confusion here.
| Buying an apartment | Buying a house on a plot | |
|---|---|---|
| Nationality restriction | None at all | Your citizenship decides whether you may |
| What you are acquiring | A flat, which is its own registered object | You are also acquiring land |
| Why that matters | Nothing else attaches to the purchase | Land is constitutionally restricted |
| Lending rules | The same as for a citizen | The same as for a citizen โ the constraint is on the land, not the loan |
| Residence permit | Not required to own one | A permanent residence permit cures it |
| Bottom line | Anyone may buy a flat | Check before you offer |
Land is governed by the Constitutional Law implementing Article 47(3) of the Constitution. Its Article 4 sets out the European and Transatlantic integration criteria: they are met by citizens and permanent residents of states belonging to at least one of the EU, NATO, the EEA or the OECD and not to a union founded on the former Soviet Union โ and, separately, by permanent residents of Lithuania regardless of citizenship. That last clause matters more than the list: a citizen of a country outside all four who holds Lithuanian permanent residence meets the criteria in their own right.
The full land question, agricultural land included, is on buying property in Lithuania. For mortgage purposes: if you cannot lawfully own the land, no bank can take a mortgage over it, and a house purchase is unavailable until your status changes. An apartment is unaffected.
A residence permit is not a borrowing requirement โ but close to one in practice. Owning property does not require one, and buying property does not grant one. Borrowing is different: the regulations require the bank to assess sustainable income, and a bank assessing income it cannot verify tends to decline. See residence permits and asmens kodas.
The Deposit, and What Banks Ask a Foreigner For
The regulatory floor is the table in the first section โ 10%, 15% or 30%, by tier. A bank may always ask for more. It may never accept less.
Only one of the five publishes a minimum deposit above the regulatory floor for its standard product, and only one prices its published example off the new 90% advance. Everything else here is unpublished.
No Lithuanian bank publishes a separate deposit, loan-to-value ceiling, or citizenship or residency condition for foreign nationals. SEB's home-purchase page states its 85% ceiling and says nothing about nationality, residency or foreign income; the other four are the same. The "foreigner deposit" figures on brokerage and relocation sites appear in no bank's own terms.
What differs is evidence. A salary paid into a Lithuanian account by a Lithuanian employer is trivial to verify; income earned abroad, in another currency, from an employer with no Lithuanian presence, is not. The regulatory caps are published; everything a bank adds on top is its own credit policy โ so ask each bank directly and get the answer in writing.
The Five Lenders
Commercial comparison ยท Links to providers, no commission earned
Five banks write housing loans in Lithuania at any scale. What follows is each one's own published representative example, transcribed exactly and not recalculated by us. That is a legal requirement, not a courtesy: under the Law on Consumer Credit we may not state a cost-of-credit figure without the lender's own representative example beside it, and may not construct one ourselves.
These examples are not offers, and they are not comparable. Each bank chooses its own loan amount, term and assumed rate: Swedbank's runs 26 years on โฌ110,000.00, Artea's 30 years on โฌ90,000.00. An APR is only comparable against another APR on the same amount and term, so read each as an illustration of that bank's own cost structure and get personal offers from more than one.
Three of the four examples assume a variable rate, so the instalment moves with EURIBOR. Swedbank has the largest branch network and the most foreign-customer volume of the five, and states its agreement fee as a percentage of the loan; Artea charges a flat fee. SEB's example is the most complete because it includes home insurance, and SEB is the only one of the five with a full English-language product page โ though it publishes nothing about foreign nationals or income earned abroad. Citadele's example is the only one priced off the new 90% advance and states which costs it excludes, but carries a card plan fee and a smaller branch network.
Swedbank
The largest mortgage book in the country
Key highlights
Key features
- Largest branch network in Lithuania
- Publishes a full representative example
- Agreement fee scales as a percentage
Account details
- Example loan
- โฌ110,000.00 over 26 years
- Agreement fee
- โฌ440.00
- Instalments
- 312
Summary
- Largest branch network in Lithuania
- Publishes a full representative example
- Agreement fee scales as a percentage
- Example assumes a variable rate
- Example term is not comparable
Representative example (Swedbank) โ a loan of โฌ110,000.00 over 26 years (312 instalments) at a 4% variable annual interest rate, with a โฌ440.00 agreement administration fee, โฌ8.60 mortgage registration and a โฌ1 monthly service fee, gives a monthly instalment of โฌ572.32 and a total amount payable of โฌ179,100.51 APR: 4.19%
As published by Swedbank โ swedbank.lt. Retrieved August 2026; providers revise these annually.
SEB
The full mortgage page in English
Key highlights
Key features
- Full English-language product page
- Example includes home insurance
- States its lending ceiling openly
Account details
- Example loan
- โฌ100,000.00 over 25 years
- Published ceiling
- 85% of value
- Agreement fee
- โฌ400.00
Summary
- Full English-language product page
- Example includes home insurance
- States its lending ceiling openly
- Silent on income earned abroad
- Ceiling stated is the standard tier
Representative example (SEB) โ a loan of โฌ100,000.00 over 25 years (300 instalments) at 4.3% variable interest, with a โฌ400.00 agreement fee, โฌ8.60 mortgage registration, a โฌ1 monthly banking fee and โฌ70 a year of home insurance, gives a monthly instalment of โฌ547.91 and a total amount payable of โฌ166,874.41 APR: 4.62%
As published by SEB โ seb.lt. Retrieved August 2026; providers revise these annually.
Citadele
Priced off the new 90% ceiling
Key highlights
Key features
- Example reflects the new first-home ceiling
- Fee waived on developer new-builds
- States which costs it excludes
Account details
- Example loan
- โฌ125,000.00 over 25 years
- Financing
- up to 90%
- Agreement fee
- waived on new-builds
Summary
- Example reflects the new first-home ceiling
- Fee waived on developer new-builds
- States which costs it excludes
- Smaller branch network than Swedbank
- Example carries a card fee
Representative example (Citadele) โ a loan of โฌ125,000.00 over 25 years at a 4.1% variable annual interest rate, with โฌ8.60 mortgage registration and a โฌ2.49 card plan fee, gives a monthly instalment of โฌ670.68 and a total amount payable of โฌ201,957.53. Notary, valuation and home insurance costs are excluded because the bank does not know them APR: 4.29%
As published by Citadele โ citadele.lt. Retrieved August 2026; providers revise these annually.
Artea
Formerly ล iauliลณ bankas, renamed not sold
Key highlights
Key features
- Only example at the maximum term
- Lithuanian-owned, growing loan book
- Flat agreement fee, not a percentage
Account details
- Example loan
- โฌ90,000.00 over 30 years
- Agreement fee
- โฌ360.00
- New domain
- artea.lt
Summary
- Only example at the maximum term
- Lithuanian-owned, growing loan book
- Flat agreement fee, not a percentage
- Example assumes a higher rate
- Older results use the old name
Representative example (Artea) โ a credit of โฌ90,000.00 secured on real estate over 30 years, at a 5.93% variable annual interest rate on the annuity method, with a โฌ360.00 one-off agreement administration fee, gives a monthly instalment of โฌ535.55 and a total amount payable of โฌ193,158.64 APR: 6.13%
As published by Artea โ artea.lt. Retrieved August 2026; providers revise these annually.
If you banked with ล iauliลณ bankas, you now bank with Artea
sb.lt returns a redirect to artea.lt. The bank has been renamed, not acquired or wound up. Older guides and search results still carry the previous name, which is why people assume it has disappeared. Artea's own published example assumes a materially higher rate than the other three, and is the only one of the four running the full 30-year term.
Luminor, and why there is no APR for it here
Luminor publishes a housing loan calculator, a margin of 1.49% plus 6-month EURIBOR, a five-year fixed rate of 4.5%, and a minimum down payment of 15%. What it does not publish, anywhere on that page, is a representative example.
There is therefore no APR, no monthly payment and no total payable for Luminor below: under the Law on Consumer Credit a cost-of-credit figure requires the lender's own representative example on the same page, and one constructed from a published margin is precisely what the rule forbids. Luminor is a real option and belongs on your shortlist โ go to them for the numbers, and note that "index plus margin" is not a rate until you add today's index.
How the Rate Is Actually Built
A Lithuanian mortgage rate is two components added together, and confusing them is why people quote each other meaningless numbers.
| Component | Who sets it | Does it move? |
|---|---|---|
| EURIBOR โ usually the 6-month rate | The euro interbank market | Yes โ this is the whole point |
| The bank's margin | Your bank, from your file | Fixed for the life of the loan, normally |
| Together: your variable rate | Both of the above | Resets every 3, 6 or 12 months |
The margin is the part you negotiate and the part that reflects you โ income, deposit, other business with the bank. The index is the part nobody controls. A colleague who says they pay "about two per cent" is almost certainly quoting the margin and leaving out the index.
A rate quoted without a date is not information. EURIBOR is republished every business day, so a rate cited without the date it was true on tells you nothing you can act on โ including the four representative examples above, which is why each carries the date it was read. No EURIBOR value appears on this page: any figure typed here would be stale within days. Take the current index from your bank on the day, or from the Bank of Lithuania's loan statistics.
Fixed or variable
Lithuanian banks offer both. A fixed period โ commonly one to ten years โ buys certainty at a price, and the Bank of Lithuania publishes monthly statistics on new housing loans by initial fixing period so borrowers can see what that price is. Since early 2023 the longer fixed rates have at times sat below the equivalent variable rates.
Two things follow. First, do not assume fixed is dearer; check on the day. Second, the 6% stress test applies whichever you choose โ fixing your rate does not lower the income the bank must show you can service.
What the Loan Costs to Set Up
Arranging the loan has costs of its own, separately from the deposit and the interest. They appear inside the representative examples above, the most reliable published source for them.
| Cost | What the banks' own examples show | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Agreement / administration fee | โฌ400.00 to โฌ440.00 in the four examples | Swedbank's is a percentage of the loan; Artea's and SEB's are flat; Citadele waives it on new-builds |
| Mortgage registration | โฌ8.60 | The same figure appears in four separate banks' examples |
| Monthly account or service fee | โฌ1 a month in two of the examples | Included in the APR calculation by the banks that charge it |
| Property valuation | Excluded from every example | Banks state it is not known to them; the buyer commissions it |
| Property insurance | โฌ70 a year in SEB's example only | Required by the lender; the other three exclude it from the APR |
| Notary fee | Excluded from every example | A percentage of the price, set by ministerial order โ ask for a written quotation |
The notary's fee for certifying a purchase is a tiered percentage of the transaction value, set by order of the Minister of Justice under Article 19(1) of the Law on the Notariat. The Chamber of Notaries publishes the six criteria behind the rates but no current tariff table, so ask your notary for a written quotation before you instruct them โ any notary can give an exact figure in advance.
Registering the purchase itself at the Real Estate Register carries a further, separate fee. The โฌ8.60 above is the mortgage registration fee, not the fee for registering your ownership.
The State-Subsidised Loan, and Why It Is Probably Not for You
Lithuania runs a state-partially-compensated housing credit under the Law on Support for Acquisition or Rental of Housing. The state pays a share of your loan directly โ and most foreigners here are not eligible.
Open to adult Lithuanian citizens and holders of a permanent residence permit. A temporary permit โ what most people working or studying here hold โ does not qualify, nor does an EU citizen's registered right of residence unless it has matured into permanent residence.
There are also household income and asset ceilings, so a well-paid applicant who does hold permanent residence may still fall outside them.
For applications made from 1 January 2025 the subsidy is 10%, 12.5% or 15% of the credit depending on household composition โ reduced from the 15%โ30% range that applied to earlier applications. The maximum credit is โฌ53,000.00 for a single person without a family and โฌ87,000.00 for a household of two or more.
In Vilnius, โฌ87,000.00 is well below the price of most family apartments, so the scheme functions as a contribution rather than as the financing itself.
How the Process Runs
Get the conditional offer before you start viewing seriously: the 6% stress test frequently produces a lower number than buyers expect, and discovering that after an offer is an expensive way to learn it.
The valuation comes late and is specific to the property, not to you. A bank that approved you in principle can still lend less if the valuation comes in under the agreed price โ the shortfall then comes out of your deposit, on top of the deposit you already had to find.
The notary certifies the sale and the mortgage in the same appointment. A real estate sale must be in notarial form or it is void, and the mortgage is created at the same time. What the notary checks, what they send to the register and who pays is on buying property in Lithuania.
Why You Can Trust This Guide
Every lending limit here comes from the Bank of Lithuania's own published measures, read on 27 August 2026 โ after the 1 August amendment took effect.
All four representative examples are the lender's own published figures, copied rather than recalculated. Where a lender publishes none, no cost figure appears and the absence is stated.
The notary tariff and any foreigner-specific deposit policy are unpublished. Each is marked as a gap rather than filled with a plausible number.
We are not a credit provider or intermediary and take no applications. No bank pays us; the ordering is editorial.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I get a mortgage in Lithuania as a foreigner?
Yes. The Bank of Lithuania's lending rules say nothing about nationality โ the loan-to-value ceilings, the debt-service cap and the maximum term apply to every borrower a bank has. What differs is evidence: income earned abroad, in another currency, from an employer with no Lithuanian presence is harder to verify. No Lithuanian bank publishes a separate policy for foreign nationals.
How much deposit do I need?
From 1 August 2026, 10% if this is your first home โ neither you nor a co-borrower owning residential property, or having owned any in the last 5 years. Otherwise 15%. A second or subsequent housing loan is 30%, falling to 15% where more than half of each existing housing loan is repaid. Banks may ask for more, never less.
Why is the bank offering me so much less than I calculated?
Almost certainly the stress test. Your monthly credit payments may not exceed 50% of your income, and the bank must calculate that at a rate of at least 6%, not the rate it is offering. On a 30-year loan that cuts borrowing capacity substantially, and most online calculators do not apply it.
What is the maximum mortgage term in Lithuania?
30 years, the limit since 2015 when it came down from forty, and unchanged in the August 2026 amendment. Individual banks apply their own age limits on top, which the regulator does not set and which are not uniform.
Can a non-EU citizen buy a house with land in Lithuania?
It depends on citizenship, not on EU membership as such. Land may be acquired by citizens and permanent residents of states belonging to at least one of the EU, NATO, the EEA or the OECD, provided the state does not belong to a union founded on the former Soviet Union; separately, any permanent resident of Lithuania qualifies regardless of citizenship. Apartments are unaffected, because a flat is its own registered object rather than land.
What interest rate will I pay?
EURIBOR plus the bank's margin. The margin is negotiated from your file and normally fixed for the life of the loan; EURIBOR is republished every business day and resets your rate every three, six or twelve months. That is why no rate figure appears here โ any number typed on a page would be stale within days. The four representative examples show what each bank assumed on the date each was published.
Which Lithuanian bank has the best mortgage?
No answer survives contact with your own file, because the margin is set from your income, deposit and existing relationship. Four of the five publish a representative example, reproduced above, but they describe four different loans over four different terms and are not comparable with one another. Get personal offers from at least three.
Why is there no APR for Luminor on this page?
Because Luminor publishes no representative example, and Lithuanian consumer credit law does not allow a cost-of-credit figure without the lender's own example alongside it โ constructing one from a published margin is exactly what that rule forbids. Luminor does publish a margin of 1.49% over six-month EURIBOR, a five-year fixed rate of 4.5% and a minimum down payment of 15%, and is worth approaching directly.
What happened to ล iauliลณ bankas?
It was renamed Artea. The old domain sb.lt redirects to artea.lt and the bank still writes housing loans โ it has not been acquired or wound up. Older comparison tables and search results still carry the previous name, which is why people assume it has gone.
Are there fees beyond the deposit and the interest?
Yes, and several sit outside the loan: an agreement or administration fee, ranging across the four published examples from a flat few hundred euros to a percentage of the amount borrowed; mortgage registration at โฌ8.60, identical in four banks' examples; a property valuation and lender-required property insurance, which most banks exclude from their examples because the amounts are not known to them; and the notary's fee on the purchase.
Do I need a residence permit to get a mortgage?
Owning property does not require a residence permit, and buying property does not grant one. Borrowing is separate: the regulations require the bank to assess sustainable income, and a bank that cannot verify your income and status tends to decline. A permit is not a legal condition of borrowing, but nothing else makes the assessment as straightforward.
Can I get the state-subsidised housing loan?
Only as a Lithuanian citizen or a permanent residence permit holder; a temporary permit does not qualify. There are also household income and asset ceilings, and the maximum credit is โฌ53,000 for a single person or โฌ87,000 for a household of two or more โ well below most family apartments in Vilnius, so it works as a contribution rather than the financing itself.
Work out the purchase before you work out the loan
The mortgage is one half of this. Who may own the land, what the notary does, what you pay in tax while you hold the property and what you pay when you sell it are the other half โ and they decide more than the rate does.
Disclaimer
General information, not financial or legal advice, and not a credit offer or an invitation to apply. We are not a credit provider and not a credit intermediary. Lending rules, rates and bank policies change โ the Responsible Lending Regulations changed on 1 August 2026, less than a month before this page was written. Verify every figure with the lender before you commit, and take professional advice on your own circumstances.