Cyprus was the only EU member state that experienced a fall in annual house prices during the first quarter of 2021 and only one of three that experienced a quarterly fall, according to Eurostat.
Annual house prices in the EU member states rose by an average of 6.1% compared with the same quarter in 2020. Eurostat reports that this is the highest annual increase for the euro area since the fourth quarter of 2006, and since the third quarter of 2007 for the EU.
Member States for which data are available, the highest annual increases in house prices in the first quarter of 2021 were recorded in Luxembourg (+17.0%), Denmark (+15.3%), Lithuania (+12.0%), Czechia (+11.9%) and the Netherlands (+11.3%), while prices fell only in Cyprus (-5.8%).
For Cyprus, this represents the largest annual fall since the first quarter of 2014, in the wake of the collapse of the island’s economy in 2013.
Compared with the fourth quarter of 2020, house prices in EU member states rose during the first quarter of 2021 by an average of 1.7%. Cyprus recorded the highest fall amongst the three states where the price of houses fell.
Compared with the previous quarter, the highest increases were recorded in Estonia (+6.6%), Denmark (+5.8%) and Lithuania (+5.0%), while decreases were observed only in Cyprus (-5.8%), Malta (-1.6%) and Slovakia (-1.2%).
The House Prices Index
The House Price Index (HPI) measures the price changes of all residential properties purchased by households (flats, detached houses, terraced houses, etc.), both newly built and existing, independently of their final use and independently of their previous owners.
