Indices of house prices and residential property transactions: Q2 2011

23/08/2011 - Press Releases

According to data collected from credit institutions, (1) nominal apartment prices are estimated to have declined on average by 4.5% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2011. According to revised data, the average annual rate of change was -4.7% in 2010 (Q1: -1.8%, Q2: -4.7%, Q3: -5.2% and Q4: -7.0%), compared with -3.7% in 2009.

Apartment prices by age and geographical area

More specifically, the prices of "old" apartments, i.e. over 5 years old, declined by 5.5% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2011, at a higher rate than those of “new” apartments (i.e. up to 5 years old), which dropped by 3.0%. This observation is also valid for 2010 as a whole, when the average annual rates of decline in these categories were 5.0% and 4.2% respectively, and even more so for 2009 (“old”: -4.8%, “new”: -2.0%). The stronger decline in the prices of "old" apartments reflects the relatively stronger resilience of newly-built apartments generally available for sale by construction firms.

According to data broken down by geographical area, apartment prices are estimated to have declined in the second quarter of 2011 by 6.7% year-on-year in Athens, 4.7% in Thessaloniki, 3.5% in other cities and 1.0% in other areas of Greece. According to revised data, 2010 prices dropped on average by 3.2%, 7.4%, 5.3% and 5.8% in the abovementioned areas. These figures show that in 2010 the prices of apartments registered the strongest decline in Thessaloniki and other areas of Greece, which include secondary residencies or holiday homes.

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 between “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 MFI (3) 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.) stood at 11,386 in the second quarter of 2011, compared with 12,425 in the previous quarter. Year-on-year, residential property transactions-appraisals fell by 39.1% in the second quarter of 2011. Their number in 2010 reached 74,371 (revised data), declining slightly by 0.3% (2009: 74,586), compared with a 35.7% drop in 2009 (2008: 116,034).

The volume of residential property transactions-appraisals based on total square metres declined by 36.3% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2011; for the whole of 2010, based on revised data, this volume declined at an average annual rate of 0.2%, compared with 38.9% in 2009.

Finally, the value of residential property transactions-appraisals conducted with MFI intermediation dropped by 34.6% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2011. In 2010, the average annual rate of change was -6.3% (revised data), against -40.0% in 2009.

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INDICES OF APARTMENT PRICES⁽¹⁾
(2007=100)
	2009	2010 *					2011 *
	average	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4*	average*	Q1*	Q2*
*Ι. Summary*
Price index	97.9	96.3	94.2	92.0	90.9	93.3	91.3	89.9
(%) change over previous year	-3.7%	-1.8%	-4.7%	-5.2%	-7.0%	-4.7%	-5.2%	-4.5%

*II. BY AGE*
1. New (up to 5 years old)
Price index	100.2	98.9	96.2	95.2	93.6	96.0	94.4	93.3
(%) change over previous year	-2.0%	1.2%	-5.3%	-5.0%	-7.5%	-4.2%	-4.6%	-3.0%
2. Old (over 5 years old)
Price index	96.5	94.7	93.0	89.9	89.2	91.7	89.4	87.8
(%) change over previous year	-4.8%	-3.6%	-4.3%	-5.3%	-6.6%	-5.0%	-5.6%	-5.5%

*ΙΙΙ. BY GEOGRAPHICAL AREA*
1. Athens
Price index	96.3	96.0	94.8	91.1	90.7	93.2	90.3	88.4
(%) change over previous year	-4.6%	-1.0%	-2.0%	-4.1%	-5.8%	-3.2%	-6.0%	-6.7%
2. Thessaloniki
Price index	95.4	92.0	88.9	86.4	86.1	88.4	84.9	84.7
(%) change over previous year	-6.0%	-3.5%	-5.9%	-9.8%	-10.2%	-7.4%	-7.7%	-4.7%
3. Other cities
Price index	99.0	96.7	94.5	92.0	91.8	93.7	92.7	91.3
(%) change over previous year	-2.7%	-2.3%	-4.6%	-6.6%	-7.8%	-5.3%	-4.1%	-3.5%
4. Other areas of Greece
Price index	101.3	98.4	95.0	96.2	92.1	95.4	94.8	94.1
(%) change over previous year	-1.9%	-2.2%	-9.5%	-4.2%	-7.2%	-5.8%	-3.7%	-1.0%


INDICES OF RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS-APPRAISALS WITH MFI INTERMEDIATION⁽²⁾
1. Transactions
Number of transactions	74,586	24,380	18,711	15,756	15,524	74,371	12,425	11,386
(%) change over previous year	-35.7%	52.9%	5.3%	-5.3%	-36.0%	-0.3%	-49.0%	-39.1%
2. Volume of transactions (total m²)
Volume index (2007=100)	46.7	59.1	46.7	40.4	40.5	46.7	32.4	29.8
(%) change over previous year	-38.9%	44.7%	3.1%	-3.3%	-31.5%	-0.2%	-45.2%	-36.3%
3. Value of transactions
Value index (2007=100)	48.0	58.3	44.2	37.9	39.4	45.0	31.8	28.9
(%) change over previous year	-40.0%	38.8%	-7.5%	-10.3%	-34.2%	-6.3%	-45.5%	-34.6%

* 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 546,816 appraisals were reported to the Bank of Greece (by end-July 2011) (68.3% concerning apartments, 19.0% houses, 5.6% maisonettes, 5.2% building plots, and 1.9% 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.

(3) MFI: Monetary financial institutions.