HOUSE prices in Cyprus fell by 5.7% in the first quarter of 2014, compared with the same quarter of the previous year, according to Eurostat.
The largest annual falls in house prices were recorded in Croatia (-9.7%), Slovenia (-6.6%), and Cyprus (-5.7%) – and the highest increases in Estonia (+17.5%), Latvia (+10.4%) and the United Kingdom (+8.0%).
The largest quarterly falls were recorded in Croatia (-2.7%), Luxembourg (-2.3%), and Slovenia (-1.7%) – and the highest increases in Estonia (+4.8%), Sweden (+2.4%) and the United Kingdom (+2.2%).
House prices, as measured by the House Price Index, fell by 0.3% in the Euro area and rose by 1.0% in the EU in the first quarter of 2014 compared with the same quarter of 2013.
The is rather surprising and clearly questions either Eurostat or RICS Cyprus. The RICS Cyprus report based on DLO data and its own very close and knowledgeable market knowledge, put the same Q1/14 decrease in the region of 1.6%, so how can it be that this assessment puts is so much more higher?
Nigel, could we ask your view on why there seems to be such a large difference in the two sets of data? The RICS Cyprus report is available from the RICS Cyprus website.
@Colin on 2014/07/14 at 7:52 am – The RICS (Cyprus) Property Price Index (which you can get from my article at Dramatic fall in Cyprus property prices) reports a fall of 2.64% for houses and 1.44% for houses over the first quarter of 2014.
While according to the Central Bank of Of Cyprus Index (see Property prices at 2006 levels) reports that apartment and house prices fell by 2.7% during the first quarter.
The differences will be due to the methodologies employed by each of the organisations.