Houses in Malta record highest price increase across the EU

House prices in Malta increased by 6% during the fourth quarter of 2016

Malta recorded the highest increase out of the European Union in the prices of houses during the last four months of 2016, data released by Eurostat show.

Compared with the previous quarter, the highest increases were recorded in Malta (+6.0%), the Czech Republic (+4.7%), the Netherlands (+3.2%) and Cyprus (+3.1%), and the largest decreases in Denmark (-1.5%), Croatia  (-0.6%) and Belgium (-0.4%).

According to the Eurostat, prices, as measured by the House Price Index, rose by 4.1% in the euro area and by 4.7% in the EU in the fourth quarter of 2016 compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

Compared with the third quarter of 2016, house prices rose by 0.8% in both zones in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Among the Member States for which data are available, the highest annual increases in house prices in the fourth quarter of 2016 were recorded in the Czech Republic (+11.0%), Hungary (+9.7%) and Lithuania (+9.5%), while prices remained nearly stable in Italy (+0.1%).