The amount of housing stock in Latvia continued to increase last year, according to the Central Statistical Bureau in Rīga, while the average amount of floor space per resident also expanded.

Housing stock by the end of 2007 had reached 60.1 million square meters (more than 646.9 million square feet), the statistical bureau said in a June 16 press release. Of that, 87 percent was owned privately, an indication of how privatization of government-owned residential buildings has continued. In 2000, 76 percent of the housing stock was in private hands.

Two thirds of the housing stock is in urban areas, the rest in rural areas, the bureau said.

The amount of average floor space per resident continued to grow, too. In 2000, the average stood at 22.6 square meters (about 243 square feet) per inhabitant. Last year, the average was 26.4 square meters (about 284 square feet), a nearly 17 percent increase.

Construction of new residential property continued actively during 2007, the statistical bureau said, with more than 1.18 million square meters (nearly 12.8 million square feet) commissioned. Of that total, 1,998 were single family homes—and 79 percent of those were two-story buildings.

Despite the upbeat numbers, concern about the Latvian real estate market remains. Property values, which had been rising steeply in recent years, have started to fall. In a survey of the housing market in 2007, Rīga-based Arco Real Estate noted that after an initial bump in the first four months of the year, housing prices began to slide. Banks, meanwhile, are cutting back on credit.

According to statistical bureau data, orders for new residential construction totaled LVL 11.02 million in the first quarter of this year, a marked contrast to the LVL 53.6 million in new orders during the first quarter of 2007.

If you live in Australia and want to vote by mail in Latvia’s Aug. 2 constitutional referendum, you will need to find a different country to which to send your application. Both honorary consulates in Adelaide and Sydney have withdrawn from the list of locations where passports and mail ballot requests can be sent, the Central Election Commission announced June 17 in Rīga.

Vote-by-mail applications are due July 11, but the date coincides with the 2008 All Latvia Song and Dance Festival, which runs July 5-12 in Rīga. Honorary consuls Valdis Tomanis in Adelaide and Aldis Birzulis in Sydney, along with other experienced election workers, will be in Latvia during the festival and so will not be able to handle mail ballot requests, commission spokeswoman Kristīne Bērziņa said in a press release.

Latvian citizens in Australia will still be able to vote in person on Aug. 2 at polling places in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. The referendum will ask whether Latvia’s constitution should be amended to allow citizens to initiate dismissal of the Saeima.

Election commission Chairman Arnis Cimdars is disappointed that the honorary consuls have declined to process mail ballot applications, Bērziņa said in the press release.

Applications for mail ballots are being accepted at 11 other locations, including the Latvian embassies in Berlin, Germany; Brussels, Belgium; Copenhagen, Denmark; Dublin, Ireland; London, United Kingdom; Minsk, Belarus; Oslo, Norway; Ottawa, Canada; Stockholm, Sweden, and Washington, D.C., in the United States, as well as at the honorary consulate in São Paulo, Brazil.

Latvian citizens in Australia may send requests for mail ballots to one of those locations, but will have to spend more for express mail service than if they could use the local consulates, the election commission said.

Further information on the referendum and the election process is available from the Central Election Commission’s Web site, www.cvk.lv.

If a downtown Rīga boulevard could be renamed for Latvia’s first foreign minister, then why not the country’s leading airport? That’s the suggestion of Rīga Mayor Jānis Birks.

Speaking to Latvian Independent Television, Birks on June 17 suggested authorities consider renaming Rīga International Airport to Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics Airport. Meierovics served as Latvia’s first foreign minister and wanted to open the country to the world, Birks said, according to media reports.

Birks’ suggestion comes as the Rīga City Council waits to act on a proposal to rename Basteja Boulevard to Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics Boulevard.

Krišjānis Peters, chairman of the airport’s board of directors, supports the idea of adding the Meierovics name to the airport, but only as a secondary title, according to the Delfi portal. The airport is 100 percent owned by the Latvian government.

Transport Minister Ainārs Šlesers, meanwhile, opposes the idea.

“The airport with its RIX name has earned itself international recognition,” he said in a press release. “It has become a brand as with any respectable company, be it BMW, Audi or Nike. Changing the name would cause miscomprehension and would raise questions if by chance another airport has not appeared in Latvia.”

Meierovics, who became foreign minister when Latvia declared its independence in 1918, died in a one-car accident in 1925.

Basteja Boulevard, which runs at the edge of Rīga’s Old Town, was called Meierovics Boulevard from 1929 until 1941. Current Foreign Minister Māris Riekstiņš suggested earlier this year that the Meierovics name be restored, an idea supported by President Valdis Zatlers and the World Federation of Free Latvians (Pasaules brīvo latviešu apvienība), among others.

Birks, however, would rather leave the Basteja name, according to media reports. A city council commission overseeing place names is against the change to Meierovics Boulevard, citing the historical significance of Basteja Boulevard.