House construction likely to drop to new lows by year-end

The housing market appears to be plumbing new depths, with the construction of new units having sunk below that registered in 2014, the lowest on record.

The latest data show that just 868 new houses were built across the country in May, against 903 houses in the same month last year.

Taking into account that the debt crisis culminated in June and capital controls came into effect at the end of that month, it is likely that the figures will go further down in the rest of this year.

In the first five months of 2015 just 3,766 new houses were built, according to Alpha Bank, against 3,808 in the January-May period in 2014. This constitutes a yearly decline of 1.1 percent.