Indices of house prices and residential property transactions: Q1 2012
10/05/2012 - Press Releases
According to data collected from credit institutions,(1) nominal apartment prices are estimated to have declined on average by 9.3% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012. According to revised data, the average annual rate of change was -5.3% in 2011 (Q1: -5.4%, Q2: -5.0%, Q3: -4.4% and Q4: -6.5%), compared with -4.7% in 2010.
Apartment prices by age and geographical area
More specifically, the year-on-year rate of decline in prices was 10.3% for "new" apartments, (i.e. up to 5 years old) and 8.6% for "old" apartments (i.e. over 5 years old) in the first quarter of 2012. Nevertheless, it is important to note the relatively stronger decline in the prices of "old" apartments compared to the “new” apartments throughout the preceding period of the current crisis, which seems to reflect the greater price resilience of newly-built apartments typically available for sale by construction firms. Indeed, in 2011 as a whole, based on revised data, the average annual rate of decline in prices for "new" and "old" apartments was 4.8% and 5.6% respectively, while a similar pattern was observed in 2010 ("new": -4.2%, "old": -5.0%) and 2009 ("new": -2.0%, "old": -4.8%).
According to data broken down by geographical area, apartment prices are estimated to have declined year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012 by 9.9% in Athens, 10.1% in Thessaloniki, 8.8% in other cities and 8.2% in other areas of Greece. According to revised data, 2011 prices dropped on average year-on-year by 6.4%, 6.8%, 4.0% and 3.7% respectively in the abovementioned areas. These figures show that in 2011 and in the first quarter of 2012 the prices of apartments registered strongest declines in the two major urban centres, Athens and Thessaloniki, compared with other regions.
In order to provide a more complete picture of house prices, the Bank of Greece has produced two new tables apart from the table on house prices by geographical area (Athens, Thessaloniki, other cities and other areas), which break down data into “new” (up to 5 years old) and “old” (over 5 years old) apartments. The detailed tables are published in the “Bulletin of Conjunctural Indicators” (Tables ΙΙ.7.1 and ΙΙ.7.2) available on the Bank of Greece’s website:
http://www.bankofgreece.gr/RelatedDocuments/NEW_INDEX_OF_APARTMENT_PRICES_BY_GEOGRAPHICAL_AREA.PDF
Indices of residential property transactions-appraisals (2)Residential property transactions-appraisals conducted with Monetary Financial Institution intermediation for any reason (renegotiation of existing loans, registration of a mortgage to back non-housing loans, debt transfers from one bank to another, etc.) came to 5,874 in the first quarter of 2012, down from 7,723 in the previous quarter. Year-on-year, residential property appraisals fell by 54.1% in the first quarter of 2012. The number of appraisals in 2011 reached 42,034 (revised data), following a significant drop of 43.5% year-on-year (2010: 74,457).
The volume of residential property transactions-appraisals based on total square metres declined by 52.1% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012, and for the whole of 2011, based on revised data, this volume declined at an average annual rate of 40.7%.Finally, the value of residential property transactions-appraisals conducted with Monetary Financial Institution intermediation dropped by 56.5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012. In 2011, the average annual rate of change was -40.5% (revised data).
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INDICES OF APARTMENT PRICES (1)
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(2007=100)
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2010
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2011 *
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2012 *
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average
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Q1
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Q2*
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Q3*
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Q4*
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average*
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Q1*
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Ι. Summary
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Price index
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93.3
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91.1
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89.5
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87.9
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85.0
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88.4
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82.7
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change over previous year
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-4.7%
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-5.4%
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-5.0%
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-4.4%
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-6.5%
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-5.3%
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-9.3%
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II. BY AGE
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1. New (up to 5 years old)
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Price index
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96.0
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93.8
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92.4
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91.8
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87.6
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91.4
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84.1
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change over previous year
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-4.2%
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-5.1%
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-4.0%
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-3.6%
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-6.4%
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-4.8%
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-10.3%
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2. Old (over 5 years old)
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Price index
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91.7
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89.4
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87.7
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85.5
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83.4
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86.5
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81.7
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change over previous year
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-5.0%
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-5.6%
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-5.7%
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-4.8%
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-6.5%
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-5.6%
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-8.6%
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ΙΙΙ. BY GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
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1. Athens
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Price index
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93.2
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90.0
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88.3
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87.2
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83.2
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87.2
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81.1
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change over previous year
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-3.2%
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-6.2%
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-6.8%
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-4.3%
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-8.4%
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-6.4%
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-9.9%
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2. Thessaloniki
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Price index
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88.4
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84.9
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85.1
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81.0
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78.5
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82.4
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76.3
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change over previous year
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-7.4%
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-7.8%
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-4.2%
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-6.3%
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-8.9%
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-6.8%
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-10.1%
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3. Other cities
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Price index
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93.7
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92.5
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90.9
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88.9
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87.8
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90.0
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84.3
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change over previous year
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-5.3%
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-4.3%
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-3.9%
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-3.3%
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-4.3%
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-4.0%
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-8.8%
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4. Other areas of Greece
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Price index
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95.4
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94.6
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92.5
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91.5
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88.8
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91.9
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86.8
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change over previous year
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-5.8%
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-3.8%
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-2.7%
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-4.8%
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-3.6%
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-3.7%
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-8.2%
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INDICES OF HOUSE TRANSACTIONS-APPRAISALS WITH MONETARY FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS INTERMEDIATION (2)
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1. Transactions
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Number of transactions
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74,457
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12,808
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11,983
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9,520
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7,723
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42,034
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5,874
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change over previous year
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-0.2%
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-47.5%
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-36.0%
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-39.6%
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-50.5%
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-43.5%
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-54.1%
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2. Volume of transactions (total m2)
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Volume index (2007=100)
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46.7
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33.3
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31.3
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25.1
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21.1
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27.7
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15.9
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change over previous year
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-0.1%
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-43.6%
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-33.0%
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-37.9%
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-48.2%
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-40.7%
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-52.1%
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3. Value of transactions
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Value index (2007=100)
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45.0
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32.9
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30.4
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23.5
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20.4
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26.8
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14.3
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change over previous year
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-6.2%
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-43.6%
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-31.2%
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-37.9%
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-48.6%
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-40.5%
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-56.5%
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* Provisional data.
Source: Bank of Greece.
(1) Bank of Greece indices of house prices and of the number and volume of residential property transactions use detailed data reported to the Bank of Greece by all credit institutions operating in Greece. These data are compiled by the Real Estate Market Analysis Section of the Bank of Greece as from 2009, under Bank of Greece Governor’s Act 2610/31.10.2008 and include banks’ appraisals of the current market value and qualitative characteristics of residential property. A total of about 574,039 appraisals were reported to the Bank of Greece (by end-April 2012) (67.7% concerning apartments, 19.1% houses, 5.7% maisonettes, 5.5% building plots, and 2.0% other types of property).
(2) The indices of residential property transactions are based on appraisal reports by banks’ engineers regarding the value and qualitative characteristics of residential property financed or used as collateral for loans extended by credit institutions. Part of these appraisals might not be associated with residential property transactions, but concern the renegotiation of existing loans, registration of a mortgage to back non-housing loans, debt transfers from one bank to another, etc.