Home prices up 0.3% in Q1, for third consecutive quarter, says CBC

THE Central Bank of Cyprus said that home prices rose 0.3 per cent in the first three months of the year compared to previous quarter, recording the third consecutive quarterly increase.

“The continuing quarterly increases, even though small, confirm the recovery course of the real estate sector in Cyprus as other related indicators show,” the bank supervisor said in a statement. Both apartment and house prices rose a quarterly 0.3 per cent in the first three months of the year.

Home prices also rose 0.2 per cent in January to March compared to the same period last year, which is the first annual increase in quarterly home prices over the past seven years, the central bank said. Apartment prices rose an annual 1.5 per cent and house prices rose 0.3 per cent.

In Nicosia district, house prices rose in the first three months of the year for a third consecutive quarter by a quarterly 0.2 per cent, Limassol by 0.9 per cent and Famagusta district by 0.1 per cent, the central bank said. In Larnaca and Paphos, quarterly prices fell 0.7 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively.

House prices in Limassol rose an annual 0.9 per cent in the first quarter for the first time since the third quarter of 2010, the central bank added. In all other districts, house prices fell on an annual basis. In Famagusta, house prices fell 3.7 per cent, in Larnaca 0.8 per cent, in Paphos 1.4 per cent and in Nicosia 0.1 per cent.

“These annual drops are slowing down and it is expected that should the real estate sector recovery continue, that they will rise in the near future,” the central bank said.

Apartment prices rose a quarterly 1.4 per cent in Limassol in the first three months of 2017, remained unchanged in Larnaca and Famagusta and dropped in Paphos and Nicosia by 1.5 per cent and 0.1 per cent, respectively, the central bank said.

On Wednesday, the Cyprus division of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said that house and apartment prices rose a quarterly 2.3 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively, in January to March.

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