House prices in Malta increase by 5.8% in third quarter of 2019

Malta’s increase in house prices is above the EU average of 4.1% in the third quarter of last year

File photo (James Bianchi/MediaToday)
File photo (James Bianchi/MediaToday)

House prices in Malta, as measured by the House Price Index, continued to increase in the third quarter of 2019 when compared to the previous quarter and the same quarter of the previous year according to a recent Eurostat report.

In the third quarter of 2019, house prices increased by 2.9% compared to the previous quarter. Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, house prices increased by 5.8%.

This despite a study conducted by KPMG at the end of last year finding that the property market has slowed down and that shoddy works in construction risked giving Malta a reputation as a destination for working-class migrants.

READ MORE: Malta property market waning, construction industry told

However, all of Europe saw an increase in house prices. It increased by 4.1% in both the euro area and the EU in the third quarter of 2019 compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

Malta didn’t see the largest increase. The highest increases in prices compared to the previous year were recorded in Latvia (+13.5%), Slovakia (+11.5%), Luxembourg (+11.3%) and Portugal (+10.3%). Malta’s increase (+5.8%) in house prices is above the EU average of 4.1%.

Compared with the second quarter of 2019, house prices rose by 1.5% in the EU in the third quarter of 2019.

Compared with the previous quarter, the highest increases were recorded in Latvia (+3.9%) and Slovenia (+3.1%), while decreases were observed in Cyprus (-5.9%), Hungary (-1.5%), Denmark (-0.6%), Italy (-0.3%) and Finland (-0.1%).

According to a Eurostat report in 2018, Malta had seen the third-highest growth in house prices in the last quarter of that year, increasing by 6.2% compared to the same quarter in 2017. In terms of 2019, Malta is in the lower half of European countries that saw an increase in pricing but still above the 4.1% EU average.