After a long period of decline that began in early 2009, the housing market first reported a positive sign in 2018, with prices rising by 1.5% for the whole year.

Bank of Greece data are reported on the basis of the data collected by the credit institutions and include the banks’ estimates of the current market value of the residential properties as well as information on their qualitative characteristics.

The biggest increase is recorded in the fourth quarter of 2018, when apartment prices (in nominal terms) increased by an average of 2.5% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2017. For the whole of 2018 apartment prices rose 1.5%, as previously mentioned, compared with a 1.0% drop in 2017.

2008 was the last year in which prices rose on the basis of the Bank’s data, reaching 1.7% at the time, in order to start from 2009 onwards the fall with the absolute collapse in the period 2012- 2013 that was the worst of the last decade. Indicatively, according to the Bank’s data, in 2009 the index of residential real estate had dropped by 3.7%, in 2010 by 4.7%, in 2011 the fall stood at 5.5%, by 11.7% in 2012, 10.9% in 2013, 7.5% in 2014, 5.1% in 2015 and 2.4% in 2016.

Price indexes by age and geographical area

As far as the data for 2018 is concerned, in more detail, the price increase in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to the corresponding quarter of 2017 was 2.7% for “new” apartments, i.e. up to 5 years of age, and 2.3% for “old” apartments, i.e. over 5 years of age. For 2018, the average annual growth rate for “new” apartments was 1.7% against a fall of 0.8% in 2017, while the average annual growth rate for “old” apartments was 1.3% in 2018 against a 1.2% decline in 2017.

The analysis of data by geographical area shows that apartment prices in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to the corresponding quarter of 2017 were increased by 4.2% in Athens, 2.1% in Thessaloniki, 1.1% other major cities and 0.7% in the rest of the country. For 2018, the average rise in apartment prices in the same areas compared to 2017 was 2.4%, 0.9%, 0.8% and 0.6% respectively.

Finally, for all the urban areas of the country, in the fourth quarter of 2018, apartment prices increased by 2.9% compared to the fourth quarter of 2017, while for the year 2018 the average annual growth was 1.6%.

It is noted that the number of estimates announced by the Bank of Greece by the end of January 2019 totaled 730,9 thousand.

Stefania Souki