The Greek housing market posted the second-worst performance among European Union (EU) countries in the third quarter of 2013, as according to Bank of Greece data prices fell at an annual rate of 9.2 per cent following five years of decline. Eurostat announced this week that Greece was only second to new EU member Croatia in terms of the drop in house prices.
At the same time a slowdown was observed in the rate of decline across the eurozone, with the average fall coming to just 1.3 per cent in Q3 compared to an annual slide of 2.4 per cent in the second quarter. Across the EU the drop amounted to no more than 0.5 per cent.
The Greek property market picture is unlikely to change in the next few months, even though the total price decrease has reached 32 per cent across the country since the start of the financial crisis.
Bank of Greece data published in a recent report points to an average waiting time of 12 months from when properties are put on the market to the actual sale, compared with just five months in 2009. The situation in the market is rapidly deteriorating, as it was only two months earlier that the country’s central bank had estimated the average waiting period before a house is sold at 10 months.
Similarly, on average, buyers are able to negotiate 21.5 per cent off the asking price, while in early 2009 the difference was just 12.6 per cent.
The Bank of Greece noted that the market continues to be dominated by excessive supply and a considerable decline in demand, which should be attributed to the major increase in unemployment and the reduction in households’ disposable incomes, the rise in property taxes, the instability of the tax framework and the lack of cash flow given banks’ very strict loan terms.
Source: ekathimerini