Malta has recorded the largest decrease in house prices at -4.9% when comparing the first quarter of 2018 with the last of the previous year.

The closest decreases were recorded in Cyprus (-1.8%) and Sweden (-0.8%). 

It should be noted that when comparing the same quarter with that of the previous year, Malta’s property prices actually increased by 5.2%, provisional figures indicate that the main driver of the increase was the Apartments price index, although the Maisonettes price index also went up.

The figures, which were published by Eurostat, found that house prices, as measured by the House Price Index, rose by 4.5% in the euro area and by 4.7% in the EU in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

Compared with the fourth quarter of 2017, house prices rose by 0.6% in the euro area and by 0.7% in the EU in the first quarter of 2018.

The highest annual increases in house prices in the first quarter of 2018 were recorded in Latvia (+13.7%), Slovenia (+13.4%), Ireland (+12.3%) and Portugal (+12.2%), while prices fell in Sweden and Italy (both -0.4%) as well as in Finland (-0.1%).