Press Releases

Indices of house prices and residential property transactions: Q1 2014

20/05/2014 - Press Releases

According to data collected from credit institutions, (1) nominal apartment prices are estimated to have declined on average by 7.5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2014. According to revised data, the average annual rate of change was -10.3% in 2013 (Q1: -11.5%, Q2: -11.7%, Q3: -9.2% and Q4: -8.6%), compared with -11.7% in 2012.

Apartment prices by age and geographical area

More specifically, the year-on-year rate of decline in prices was 7.6% for "new" apartments (i.e. up to 5 years old) and 7.5% for "old" apartments (i.e. over 5 years old) in the first quarter of 2014. According to revised data, the prices of “new” apartments declined by 10.4% on average in 2013, against 12.1% in 2012, whereas for “old” apartments prices declined by 10.2% in 2013, against 11.4% in 2012.

According to data broken down by geographical area, apartment prices are estimated to have declined year-on-year in the first quarter of 2014 by 10.6% in Athens, 7.4% in Thessaloniki, 5.3% in other cities and 3.8% in other areas of Greece. According to revised data, 2013 prices dropped on average year-on-year by 11.9%, 8.8%, 10.1% and 7.9% respectively in the above-mentioned areas. Finally, apartment prices declined year-on-year in the first quarter of 2014 by 8.4% in all urban areas of the country. For 2013 as a whole, based on revised data, they declined at an average annual rate of 10.5%, compared with 11.8% in 2012 (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.

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 3,903 in the first quarter of 2014, down from 3,933 in the previous quarter (revised data). Year-on-year, residential property appraisals fell by 63.3% in the first quarter of 2014 (3). According to revised data, the number of appraisals in 2013 reached 24,100 recording a significant drop of 22.2% year-on-year (2012: 30,964).

The volume of residential property transactions (appraisals), expressed in total square metres, declined by 63.4% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2014, while for the whole of 2013, based on revised data, this volume declined at an average annual rate of 23.1%.

Finally, the value of residential property transactions (appraisals) conducted with Monetary Financial Institution intermediation dropped by 66.2% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2014. In 2013, the average annual rate of change was -29.4% (revised data).

 

INDICES OF APARTMENT PRICES (1)
	2012	2013*	2013 *				2014 *
			Q1	Q2*	Q3*	Q4*	Q1*
Ι. Summary
Price index (2007=100)	78.0	69.9	72.1	70.4	69.5	67.7	66.7
(%) change over previous year	-11.7	-10.3	-11.5	-11.7	-9.2	-8.6	-7.5
II. BY AGE
1.  New (up to 5 years old)
Price index (2007=100)	80.1	71.8	74.3	71.9	70.8	70.3	68.7
(%) change over previous year	-12.1	-10.4	-10.2	-11.6	-10.2	-9.4	-7.6
2.  Old (over 5 years old)
Price index (2007=100)	76.6	68.7	70.8	69.4	68.7	66.1	65.4
(%) change over previous year	-11.4	-10.2	-12.3	-11.8	-8.5	-8.0	-7.5
ΙΙΙ. BY GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
1.  Athens
Price index (2007=100)	76.9	67.8	70.4	68.2	67.8	64.8	62.9
(%) change over previous year	-11.8	-11.9	-12.9	-12.8	-10.6	-10.9	-10.6
2.  Thessaloniki
Price index (2007=100)	71.2	64.9	68.2	65.6	62.3	63.6	63.1
(%) change over previous year	-13.6	-8.8	-7.6	-10.7	-9.7	-7.3	-7.4
3.  Other cities
Price index (2007=100)	80.3	72.2	74.0	72.8	71.8	70.1	70.1
(%) change over previous year	-10.7	-10.1	-11.3	-11.1	-9.1	-8.6	-5.3
4.  Other areas of Greece
Price index (2007=100)	80.7	74.2	75.5	74.4	73.9	73.2	72.7
(%) change over previous year	-11.6	-7.9	-10.3	-10.6	-6.2	-4.3	-3.8
5.  Urban areas (total)
Price index (1997=100)	199.2	178.2	184.7	179.6	177.1	171.4	169.2
(%) change over previous year	-11.8	-10.5	-11.1	-11.6	-9.9	-9.5	-8.4
INDICES OF RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS (APPRAISALS) WITH MONETARY FINANCIAL INSTITUTION INTERMEDIATION (2)
	2012	2013*	2013 *				2014 *
			Q1	Q2*	Q3*	Q4*	Q1*
1.  Transactions (appraisals)
Number	30,964	24,100	10,638	5,099	4,430	3,933	3,903
(%) change over previous year	-27.7	-22.2	61.3	-26.4	-23.5	-66.3	-63.3
2.  Volume of transactions (appraisals) in square metres
Volume index (2007=100)	20.6	15.9	28.0	13.5	11.6	10.4	10.2
(%) change over previous year	-26.6	-23.1	58.3	-27.1	-24.8	-66.4	-63.4
3.  Value of transactions (appraisals)
Value index (2007=100)	17.3	12.2	22.3	10.1	9.0	7.4	7.5
(%) change over previous year	-35.9	-29.4	38.2	-35.7	-30.8	-69.5	-66.2

 * Provisional data.

Source: Bank of Greece.

(1) Bank of Greece indices of residential property 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 633,899 appraisals were reported to the Bank of Greece (by end-April 2014) (66.9% concerning apartments, 19.3% houses, 5.9% maisonettes, 5.8% building plots and 2.1% 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 may 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) The recorded increase in the number of appraisals in the last quarter of 2012 and in the first quarter of 2013 reflects the decision of some major commercial banks to proceed with a reappraisal of a significant part of their residential collateral portfolios underlying their lending business.