House prices up

House prices, as measured by the House Price Index, rose by 5.0% in the euro area in the first quarter of 2020 compared with the same quarter of the previous year. This is the highest annual increase since the second quarter of 2007. In the EU house prices rose by 5.5% 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 2019, house prices rose by 0.9% in the euro area, 1.2% in the EU and in the first quarter of 2020. In Cyprus house prices rose by 2.5% and 1.1% in quarterly and annual basis, during Q1 2020.

Among the Member States for which data are available, the highest annual increases in house prices in the first quarter of 2020 were recorded in Luxembourg (+14.0%), Slovakia (+13.1%), Estonia (+11.5%), Poland (+11.3%) and Portugal (+10.3%), while prices only fell in Hungary (-1.2%). Compared with the previous quarter, the highest increases were recorded in Portugal (+4.9%), Estonia (+4.8%) and Slovakia (+4.0%), while decreases were observed in Malta (-4.3%), Hungary (-1.1%), Ireland (-0.8%) and Belgium (-0.1%).