Greece: Prices down 3.9% in Q1

Nominal apartment prices fell by an average 3.9% in the first quarter of 2015, compared with the same period last year, the Bank of Greece said last week.

The central bank, in a report, said that 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 an annual slide of -10.9% in 2013.

More specifically, the year-on-year rate of decline in prices was 4.5% for “new” apartments (up to five years old) and 3.5% for “old” apartments (over five 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.

According to data broken down by geographical area, apartment prices are estimated to have declined year-onyear 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 mentioned areas.

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.

Residential property appraisals conducted with Monetary Financial Institution intermediation for any purpose totaled 3,270 in the first quarter of 2015, down from 4,270 in the previous quarter. 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.

Source: http://intelligent-news.com