Press Releases

Indices of house prices and residential property transactions: Q4 2013

14/02/2014 - Press Releases

According to data collected from credit institutions,(1) nominal apartment prices are estimated to have declined by 8.5% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2013 (revised data on annual rates of change: Q1: -11.4%, Q2: -11.7% and Q3: -9.2%). Apartment prices fell significantly, by 10.3% on average, in 2013, compared with 11.7% in 2012.

Apartment prices by age and geographical area

More specifically, the prices of “new” apartments, i.e. up to 5 years old, dropped year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2013 by 9.5% (Q1: -10.2%, Q2: -11.4% and Q3: -10.4%, according to revised data), and the prices of “old” apartments, i.e. over 5 years old, by 7.8% (2013 Q1: -12.2%, Q2: -11.9%, Q3: -8.4%). 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 fourth quarter of 2013 by 10.9% in Athens, 6.9% in Thessaloniki, 8.3% in other big cities and 4.6% in other areas of Greece. For the whole of 2013, the respective annual rates of change were -11.9%, -8.6%, -10.0% and -7.9%.

More detailed tables on house prices by geographical area (Athens, Thessaloniki, other cities and other areas) and with a breakdown into “new” (up to 5 years old) and “old” (over 5 years old) apartments are published in the Bulletin of Conjunctural Indicators (Tables ΙΙ.7.1 and ΙΙ.7.2) and are also available on the Bank of Greece’s website.

Indices of residential property appraisals-transactions (2)

Residential property appraisals-transactions 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 3,841 in the fourth quarter of 2013, compared with 4,321 in the third quarter, 5,074 in the second quarter and 10,565 in the first quarter of 2013 (revised data). Year-on-year, the number of residential property appraisals fell significantly, by 67.0%, in the fourth quarter of 2013 (first, second and third quarters of 2013: 60.2%, -26.8% and -25.3%, respectively)(3). Τhe number of appraisals in 2013 reached 23,801, recording a significant drop of 23.1% year-on-year.

The volume of residential property appraisals-transactions, expressed in total square metres, declined by 67.3% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2013 (first, second and third quarters of 2013: 57.3%, -27.5% and -26.6%, respectively), and for the whole of 2013 this volume declined at an average annual rate of 24.0%.

Finally, the value of residential property appraisals-transactions conducted with Monetary Financial Institution intermediation dropped by 69.2% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2013 (first, second and third quarters of 2013: 37.1%, -35.8% and -32.3%, respectively). In 2013, the average annual rate of change was -29.9%.

 

 

INDICES OF APARTMENT PRICES (1)
(2007=100)
	2011	2012	2013*	2012	2013*
				Q4	Q1*	Q2*	Q3*	Q4*
Ι. Summary
Price index	88.2	78.0	70.0	74.0	72.2	70.4	69.5	67.7
(%) change over previous year	-5.5%	-11.7%	-10.3%	-12.8%	-11.4%	-11.7%	-9.2%	-8.5%
II. BY AGE
1.  New (up to 5 years old)
Price index	91.2	80.1	71.8	77.5	74.4	72.0	70.7	70.2
(%) change over previous year	-5.0%	-12.1%	-10.4%	-11.2%	-10.2%	-11.4%	-10.4%	-9.5%
2.  Old (over 5 years old)
Price index	86.4	76.6	68.8	71.8	70.8	69.3	68.8	66.2
(%) change over previous year	-5.8%	-11.4%	-10.2%	-13.8%	-12.2%	-11.9%	-8.4%	-7.8%
ΙΙΙ. BY GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
1.  Athens
Price index	87.2	76.9	67.8	72.7	70.4	68.2	67.7	64.8
(%) change over previous year	-6.4%	-11.8%	-11.9%	-12.9%	-12.9%	-12.8%	-10.8%	-10.9%
2.  Thessaloniki
Price index	82.4	71.2	65.1	68.6	68.3	65.7	62.4	63.8
(%) change over previous year	-6.8%	-13.6%	-8.6%	-12.9%	-7.4%	-10.5%	-9.5%	-6.9%
3.  Other cities
Price index	89.9	80.3	72.3	76.6	74.0	72.6	72.1	70.3
(%) change over previous year	-4.1%	-10.7%	-10.0%	-12.2%	-11.3%	-11.4%	-8.8%	-8.3%
4.  Other areas of Greece
Price index	91.2	80.7	74.3	76.4	75.8	74.6	73.9	72.9
(%) change over previous year	-4.4%	-11.6%	-7.9%	-13.0%	-9.9%	-10.4%	-6.1%	-4.6%
INDICES OF HOUSE APPRAISALS-TRANSACTIONS WITH MONETARY FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS INTERMEDIATION (2)
	2011	2012	2013*	2012	2013*
				Q4	Q1*	Q2*	Q3*	Q4*
1.  Appraisals-transactions
Number of appraisals-transactions	42,814	30,964	23,801	11,654	10,565	5,074	4,321	3,841
(%) change over previous year	-42.5%	-27.7%	-23.1%	41.2%	60.2%	-26.8%	-25.3%	-67.0%
2.  Volume of appraisals-transactions (total m2)
Volume index (2007=100)	28.1	20.6	15.7	30.9	27.8	13.4	11.4	10.1
(%) change over previous year	-39.8%	-26.6%	-24.0%	39.7%	57.3%	-27.5%	-26.6%	-67.3%
3.  Value of appraisals-transactions
Value index (2007=100)	27.0	17.3	12.1	24.3	22.1	10.1	8.8	7.5
(%) change over previous year	-40.1%	-35.9%	-29.9%	19.1%	37.1%	-35.8%	-32.3%	-69.2%

* Provisional data.
Source: Bank of Greece.

(1) Bank of Greece indices on house prices and on the number and volume of residential property transactions use detailed data reported to the Bank of Greece by all the credit institutions with activities in Greece. These data are compiled by the Real Estate Market Analysis Section of the Bank of Greece as from 2009, in compliance with Bank of Greece Governor’s Act 2610/31.10.2008. They include banks’ assessment of the current market value of all residential property, as well as details on qualitative characteristics. A total of about 629,192 appraisals were reported to the Bank of Greece (by end-January 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 revaluation of a significant part of the residential collateral underlying their lending business.