Property prices up 6.5% in first three months of 2019

The Property Price Index (PPI) increased by 6.5% during the first quarter of 2019 compared to the corresponding period last year.

Provisional figures indicate that the main driver behind the increase was a rise in the price of apartments, although maisonette prices were also up.

The figures, released by the National Statistics Office on Wednesday, indicate that Q1 2019’s year-on-year PPI rise was greater than the 5.3% increase registered in Q1 2018 compared to the same quarter of 2017.

The PPI covers apartments, maisonettes and terraced houses only, and is compiled on the basis of the median price for each dwelling type.

According to Eurostat figures also released yesterday, the price of property is up by 4% in both the euro area and the EU in Q1 2019 compared to Q1 2019.

Property prices down in Q1 2019 compared to last three months of 2018

The Eurostat figures show, however, that when compared to the last three months of 2018, the first quarter of 2019 saw a 4.2% decrease in the price of property in Malta. The drop was the largest recorded in the European Union for the period.

This is reflected in the NSO data, which indicate a PPI of 118.53 for Q1 2019 compared to a PPI of 123.68 for 2018’s last quarter.

Across the EU, the highest increases in Q1 2019 compared with the previous quarter were recorded in Hungary (+3.7%), Portugal (+3.6%) and Croatia (+3.5%).

The largest decreases were observed in Malta (-4.2%), the United Kingdom (-1.3%) and Ireland (-1%).

The local figures appear to confirm the sentiments relayed to BusinessToday earlier this year by property sector pundits, who said that the market appeared to have somewhat stabilised in 2019.

Malta Developers’ Association president Sandro Chetcuti had said that the property craze had started to ease somewhat.
Echoing similar views, Sensara Malta founder Janice Azzopardi had said that market prices started to calm down from the start of 2019.