Greece’s housing market fares worst in EU
The Greek residential property market posted the worst performance among its European Union peers during the last quarter of 2015, according to data released on Tuesday in Brussels by Eurostat.
Comparing the data of the European statistics service with those of the Bank of Greece, it is evident that house prices in this country declined at a rate of more than twice that of any other country in the bloc during the same period: Prices dropped 5.4 percent in Q4 compared to the same period in 2014, after a 5.8 percent slide in Q3.
In the whole of the EU prices grew an average 3.8 percent in the October-December period on an annual basis, while the rise amounted to 2.9 percent in the eurozone. Only three other countries posted a decline in prices: Croatia (down 2.1 percent), Italy (0.9 percent) and Cyprus (0.6 percent).
Greek home prices fell 5.1 percent in the whole of 2015, against a decline of 7.5 percent in 2014. In total, the price drop from 2008 to 2015 comes to almost 40 percent, and this southbound course is anticipated to continue into 2017. Still, market professionals anticipate that drop to continue easing.
Meanwhile, construction activity kept declining in January as building permits fell 18.9 percent year-on-year, the Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Tuesday.
