Indices of residential property prices: Q2 2018

According to data collected from credit institutions,(1) apartment prices (in nominal terms) are estimated to have increased on average by 0.8% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2018. According to revised data, the respective increase in the first quarter of 2018 was 0.1%, while in 2017 as a whole apartment prices declined by an average annual rate of 1.0%.

Indices of apartment prices by age and geographical area

More specifically, in the second quarter of 2018 the year-on-year rate of increase in prices was 0.9% for 'new' apartments (up to 5 years old) and 0.7% for 'old' apartments (over 5 years old). According to revised data, in the first quarter of 2018 a marginal increase of 0.2% year-on-year for 'new' apartments was recorded, whereas for 'old' apartments the prices remained unchanged. For the whole of 2017, the average annual rates of decline were 0.8% and 1.2% for 'new' and 'old' apartments, respectively.

According to data broken down by geographical area, in the second quarter of 2018 apartment prices are estimated to have increased year-on-year by 1.2% in Athens, 0.2% in Thessaloniki, 0.6% in other cities and 0.3% in other areas of Greece. According to revised data, in the first quarter of 2018 apartment prices are estimated to have increased marginally by 0.4% in Athens, whilst marginal decreases were recorded in Thessaloniki (-0.3%), in other cities (-0.1%) and in other areas of Greece (-0.2%), in comparison with the first quarter of 2017. For the whole of 2017, prices in comparison with 2016, declined on average by 1.0%, 1.5%, 1.2% and 0.8% respectively in the above-mentioned areas. Finally, as regards all urban areas of the country, in the second quarter of 2018 apartment prices increased year-on-year by 1.0%. Based on revised data, in the first quarter of 2018 apartment prices in all urban areas increased marginally by 0.3% year-on-year, while for 2017 as a whole they declined at an average annual rate of 1.0%.

Detailed tables on house prices by geographical area and with a distinction between 'new' and 'old' apartments are published in the Bank of Greece's 'Bulletin of Conjunctural Indicators' (Tables ΙΙ.7, ΙΙ.7.1, ΙΙ.7.2 and ΙΙ.8) and are also available on the Bank of Greece website in the 'Real Estate Market Analysis' section.

* Provisional data.
Source: Bank of Greece.

(1) Bank of Greece indices of residential property prices are based on detailed data reported to the Real Estate Market Analysis Section as from 2009, under Bank of Greece Governor's Act 2610/31.10.2008, by all credit institutions operating in Greece. These data include banks' appraisals of the current market value and qualitative characteristics of residential property. A total of 716.3 thousand appraisals were reported to the Bank of Greece by end-July 2018 (65.8% apartments, 19.1% houses, 6.2% maisonettes, 6.2% building plots and 2.7% other types of property).

(2) Any differences between levels and percentage changes in the table are due to rounding.