House prices in Malta up by 6.7% but still below Eurozone average

House prices in Malta rose 6.7% between January and March when compared to the same quarter last year, data released by Eurostat shows.

The increase in Malta in the first quarter was below the euro area average of 9.8% and the EU average of 10.5%, as measured by the House Price Index published by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency.

Eurostat said this is the highest annual increase for the euro area since 2005 when house prices started to be collected, and since the fourth quarter of 2006 for the EU.

In the fourth quarter of 2021, house prices rose by 9.4% and 10.1% in the Euro Area and EU respectively.

Compared with the fourth quarter of 2021, house prices rose by 1.7% in the euro area and by 2.1% in the EU in the first quarter of 2022. 

All Member States for which data are available showed an annual increase in house prices in the first quarter of 2022 and, for 17 of them, this increase exceeded 10%. The lowest increases were registered in Cyprus (+1.1%), Finland (+4.3%) and Italy (+4.6%). The highest increases were recorded in Czechia (+24.7%), Estonia (+21.0%) and Hungary (+20.6%).

Compared with the previous quarter, prices also increased in all Member States. The lowest increases were registered in Malta (+0.4%), Cyprus (+0.5%) and Germany (+0.8%). The highest increases were recorded in Estonia (+7.1%), Hungary (+6.7%) and Bulgaria (+5.2%).

The House Price Index (HPI) measures the price changes of all residential properties purchased by households, both newly built and existing, independently of their final use and independently of their previous owners.