House prices fall in the euro area

The latest data from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, found that the average value of property in the EU dropped by 1.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to the previous year, and by 1.8 per cent in the Euro area.  Quarter-on-quarter, house prices fell by 0.5 per cent in the euro area.

Among the Member States for which data are available, the highest annual increases in house prices in the fourth quarter of 2012 were recorded in Latvia (+9.8%), Estonia (+5.8%) and Malta (+5.4%), and the largest falls in Spain (-12.8%), Romania (-9.1%), and Slovenia (-8.8%).

The highest quarterly increases in the fourth quarter of 2012 were recorded in Latvia (+4.2%), Malta (+2.1%) and Luxembourg (+1.6%), and the largest falls in Romania (-7.9%), Slovenia (-3.5%) and Hungary (-2.2%).