The apartment price index reached historic highs in late 2024, with newly built properties leading the way, while older properties are following at a slower pace.
The steady upward trend in property prices since mid-2018 is causing both problems and concerns. On the one hand, it is driving up rents, exacerbating the housing problem, and on the other hand, the gap between property purchase prices and objective values is widening dramatically, leading to a distortion, as compared to the price level at the time of the last tax rate adjustment, market prices have increased by more than 50% on average.
In the fourth quarter of 2024, apartment prices across the country recorded a new increase and the index compiled by the Bank of Greece rose to 101.9, which is the second highest percentage after the third quarter of 2008 (102.2).
At the annual level, the real estate price index stood at 100.4 in 2024, which is the second best performance compared to the 2008 average, which was 101.7. The Bank of Greece’s 2024 index is now only 1.3% away from the historic high of 2008 at the annual level, but as everything indicates, this record will also be “broken” within 2025. For newly built buildings, the annual index has already climbed to 105.8, a value 3.4% higher than the previous high of 2008 (102.3).
Despite the historic high at the quarterly level, there are currently no indications that the rally in the real estate market will stop. The higher the prices climb, the more the problems associated with them increase, such as housing, expenses related to the use of the property, higher rents, etc.
