While house prices, as measured by the House Price Index, fell by 2.2% in the euro area and by 1.3% in the EU in the second quarter of 2013 compared with the same quarter of the previous year, house prices in Malta rose by 1.2% in the second quarter, following a 0.3% increase in Q1, and on an annualised basis, rose by 3.9%, making Malta the fourth country in the EU to see its property prices rise.

Among the EU States for which data are available, the highest annual increases in house prices in the second quarter of 2013 were recorded in Latvia (+8.8%), Estonia (+8.1%) and Luxembourg (+5.1%), and the largest falls in Croatia (-19.7%), Spain (-10.6%) and the Netherlands (-7.5%).

The highest quarterly increases in the second quarter of 2013 were recorded in Latvia (+5.1%), Estonia (+3.7%) and Denmark (+3.1%), and the largest falls in Croatia (-6.5%), the Netherlands (-2.0%) and Hungary (-0.9%).

The figures in this regard were published by Eurostat last week.