Price decline in residential properties starts to ease

By Nikos Roussanoglou

The drop in residential property prices last year was smaller than in 2012, as, according to a survey by the Remax estate agency network, the decline in the prices of new homes came to an average of 7 percent in 2013, while those of older residences fell 8 percent.

A year earlier the same survey had shown a price decline of 9 percent for new houses and apartments and 13 percent for older ones.

In Attica, newly built homes saw their prices drop 9 percent in 2013 while older properties saw 8 percent of theirs shaved off. In Thessaloniki there was almost no change in the price of new homes, while older ones dropped 7 percent, the survey found.

Buyers turned to older properties in 2013, as 87 percent of transactions concerned residences of at least five years old, which explains the huge stock of unsold newly built houses and apartments. This stock has remained virtually unchanged in the last three years despite crumbling building activity.