Apartment prices shoot up 7.7 pct in second quarter

Apartment prices in Greece rose 6.3 percent in the first half of the year compared to last, shooting up 7.7 percent in the second quarter compared with the same period in 2018.

Bank of Greece data published on Monday showed that the prices of "new" apartments under the age of 5 years old rose 7.7 percent in the second quarter of 2019 and "old" apartments by 7.6 percent, a significant increase from the first quarter, which saw prices go up 5.1 and 4.9 percent respectively.

In 2018 as a whole, prices for new apartments had gone up 1.9 percent and for old ones 1.6 percent.

The second-quarter figures also show that the Greek capital saw the sharpest hike at 11.1 percent, followed by the northern port city of Thessaloniki at 7 percent.

This was, again, a much improved performance from the first quarter of the year, when the rises were 7.1 and 5.4 percent...