Slovenia reports the EU's fastest rise in house prices in 3Q18

Slovenia reports the EU's fastest rise in house prices in 3Q18
House prices in Slovenia rose 15.1% y/y in the third quarter of last year, data from Eurostat shows. / Eurostat
By bne IntelliNews January 20, 2019

House prices in Slovenia rose 15.1% y/y in the third quarter of last year, accelerating from a 13.4% annual rise in the previous quarter, data from Eurostat showed on January 18. This was the highest annual rise in the EU for the July-September period.

The real estate sector has been strengthening in the past years. The number of real estate transactions rose 5% to reach a record 36,000 in 2017, according to the Mapping and Surveying Authority (GURS).

Demand for new properties is outstripping supply both in Ljubljana and in other cities in the country, and several major new construction projects have been launched in the capital.

In the first half of last year, the number of real estate transactions reached 17,500, down from 19,300 in the same period of 2017. However, the number of transactions was higher than the 17,400 transactions registered in the second half of 2017 and significantly above the 14,800 real estate transactions registered in the first half of 2015. The value of real estate transactions in the first half of last year was €1.16bn compared to only €800mn in January-June 2015.

On a quarterly basis, house prices in Slovenia rose 1.9% in the third quarter of 2018, slowing down from the 4.2% hike in the previous quarter.

Across the EU, other high annual increases in house prices in the third quarter of the year were recorded in the Netherlands (+10.2%) and Ireland (9.1%), while prices fell the most in Sweden (-2.1%) and Italy (-0.8%).

Compared with the previous quarter, the highest increases were recorded in the Netherlands (+3.3%), Malta (+3.1%) and Croatia (+2.8%), while decreases were observed in Italy (-0.8%), Romania (-0.7%), Finland (-0.4%), Slovakia (-0.3%) and Hungary (-0.2%).

Data

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