House prices, as measured by the House Price Index1 (HPI), fell by 0.3% in the euro area and rose by 1% in the EU in the first quarter of 2014 compared with the same quarter of the previous year. These figures come from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. Compared with the fourth quarter of 2013, house prices fell by 0.3% in the euro area and rose by 0.2% in the EU in the first quarter of 2014.

In the first quarter of 2014 Malta saw an increase in house prices of 0.3% since the last quarter, as opposed to a price reduction of -2.1% in the fourth quarter of 2014. Overall Malta saw the 13th highest house price increases from the 24 EU states for which figures were available. The largest house price increases for 2014 were seen in Estonia (4.8%), Sweden (2.4%), and the United Kingdom (2.2%). The biggest loss of house price, since the last quarter of 2013, was seen Croatia where prices fell 2.7%, then in Luxembourg (-2.3%) and then in Slovenia (-1.7%).

Now comparing the first quarter of 2014 with the first quarter of 2013 Malta had the 12th highest house price increase across the EU with an increase of 0.8%. The highest increase was experienced by Estonia which saw house prices go up by 17.5%, and then by Latvia (10.4%) and the UK (8%). Croatia also saw the biggest drop, this time compared to Q1 2013, seeing a 9.7% loss in value, followed by Slovenia (-6.6%) and then Cyprus (-5.7%).