Indices of residential property prices: Q1 2015
14/05/2015 - Press Releases
According to data collected from credit institutions,(1) nominal apartment prices are estimated to have declined on average by 3.9% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2015. According to revised data, the average annual rate of change was -7.5% in 2014 (Q1: -9.1%, Q2: -8.0%, Q3: -7.2% and Q4: -5.4%), compared with -10.9% in 2013.
Apartment prices by age and geographical area
More specifically, the year-on-year rate of decline in prices was 4.5% for "new" apartments (i.e. up to 5 years old) and 3.5% for "old" apartments (i.e. over 5 years old) in the first quarter of 2015. According to revised data, the prices of “new” and “old” apartments declined on average by 6.6% and 8.0% respectively in 2014 (2013: “new” -10.9%, “old” -10.8%).
According to data broken down by geographical area, apartment prices are estimated to have declined year-on-year in the first quarter of 2015 by 3.8% in Athens, 5.9% in Thessaloniki, 4.1% in other cities and 3.0% in other areas of Greece. According to revised data, 2014 prices dropped on average year-on-year by 9.2%, 6.7%, 6.7% and 5.1% respectively in the above-mentioned areas. Finally, as regards all urban areas of the country, in the first quarter of 2015 apartment prices declined year-on-year by 4.2%. For 2014 as a whole, based on revised data, they declined at an average annual rate of 8.0%, compared with -10.9% in 2013 (the apartment price index for urban areas, according to Law 4254/2014, is used to compute the capital gains tax on property transfers).
More detailed tables on house prices by geographical area, with a distinction between “new” (up to 5 years old) and “old” (over 5 years old) apartments, are published in the “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’s website.
Residential property appraisals
Residential property appraisals conducted with Monetary Financial Institution intermediation for any purpose (transaction in residential property, renegotiation of existing loans, registration of a mortgage to back non-housing loans, debt transfers from one bank to another, etc.) came to 3,270 in the first quarter of 2015, down from 4,270 in the previous quarter (revised data). Year-on-year, residential property appraisals fell by 23.9% in the first quarter of 2015. According to revised data, the number of appraisals in 2014 reached 17,044 dropping substantially by 30.3% from 24,446 in 2013.
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INDICES OF APARTMENT PRICES (1)
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2013
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2014*
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2014 *
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2015 *
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Q1
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Q2*
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Q3*
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Q4*
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Q1*
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Ι. Overall
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Price index (2007=100)
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69.5
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64.3
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65.6
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64.6
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63.8
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63.3
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63.0
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(%) change over previous year
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-10.9
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-7.5
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-9.1
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-8.0
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-7.2
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-5.4
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-3.9
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II. BY AGE
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1. New (up to 5 years old)
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Price index (2007=100)
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71.4
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66.7
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68.1
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67.2
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65.9
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65.5
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65.1
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(%) change over previous year
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-10.9
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-6.6
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-8.4
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-6.4
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-6.1
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-5.4
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-4.5
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2. Old (over 5 years old)
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Price index (2007=100)
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68.3
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62.8
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64.0
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63.0
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62.5
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61.8
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61.8
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(%) change over previous year
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-10.8
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-8.0
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-9.5
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-9.0
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-7.9
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-5.5
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-3.5
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ΙΙΙ. BY GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
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1. Athens
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Price index (2007=100)
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67.5
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61.2
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62.6
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61.2
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60.8
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60.4
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60.2
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(%) change over previous year
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-12.3
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-9.2
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-11.2
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-9.9
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-9.4
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-6.3
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-3.8
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2. Thessaloniki
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Price index (2007=100)
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64.7
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60.4
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62.3
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61.1
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59.4
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58.8
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58.7
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(%) change over previous year
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-9.1
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-6.7
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-8.6
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-6.5
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-5.1
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-6.3
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-5.9
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3. Other cities
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Price index (2007=100)
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71.9
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67.1
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68.0
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67.8
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66.9
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65.7
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65.2
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(%) change over previous year
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-10.4
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-6.7
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-8.1
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-6.5
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-6.1
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-5.8
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-4.1
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4. Other areas of Greece
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Price index (2007=100)
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73.3
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69.6
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70.9
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69.9
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68.9
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68.8
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68.7
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(%) change over previous year
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-9.1
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-5.1
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-6.2
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-6.3
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-4.7
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-3.1
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-3.0
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5. Urban areas (total)
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Price index (1997=100)
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177.4
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163.2
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166.6
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164.2
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161.6
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160.6
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159.6
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(%) change over previous year
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-10.9
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-8.0
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-9.8
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-8.3
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-8.1
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-5.7
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-4.2
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* 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 651,452 appraisals were reported to the Bank of Greece by end-April 2015 (66.6% concerning apartments, 19.3% houses, 6.0% maisonettes, 6.0% building plots and 2.1% other types of property).