Property prices stabilise, says Central Bank of Cyprus

Residencial home prices remain on a stabilisation trend, the Central Bank of Cyprus announced last week.

The Residential Property Price Index (for houses and apartments), compiled by the central bank showed a quarterly decline of 0.8% in April, whereas the yearon-year decline compared to the first quarter of 2015 was 1.6%, the lowest reduction in almost five years.

On a quarterly basis, home dropped 1.3% in the first quarter, while apartment prices were up 0.6%.

The central bank highlighted that residential property prices in the last four quarters registered either marginal reduction or signs of stabilisation, showing a stabilisation trend.

On an annual basis, the Residential Property Index in Q1 marked a reduction of 1.6% compared with an annual reduction of 1.8% in Q4 of 2015.

Housing prices dropped 1.9% year-onyear in Q1 2016, whereas apartment prices retreated at a slower pace of 0.7% compared with annual reductions of 1.4% and 2.8%, respectively, in the fourth quarter of 2015.

“The said annual reductions show a steadily declining course towards point zero, that is, price stabilisation,” the central bank said, adding that price stabilisation will be obvious in the coming quarters.

The district of Famagusta showed the highest quarterly decline with 2%, followed by Larnaca with 1.4%, Nicosia 0.8%, Limassol 0.5% and Paphos with 0.7%.

On an annual basis, Nicosia continues to show the highest reduction with 3.2% in Q1 2016, followed by Larnaca with 1.8%, Famagusta with 1.1%, Limassol with 1.1% and Paphos with 0.8%.