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Residential Property Price Index continues upward trend, deceleration expected in 2020

25/05/2020 09:30

Cyprus Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) continued its upward trend in the third quarter of 2019 pushed by rises both in houses and apartments, with the Central Bank of Cyprus pointing out that the RPPI is expected to decelerate in 2020 due to declining interest to the Cyprus Investment Programme’s stricter criteria governing the granting of citizenship to investors.

In the third quarter of 2019, the RPPI marked a quarterly increase of 0.7% with prices registering increase in all districts. The apartment and house indexes rose by 1.5% and 0.3% respectively quarter on quarter.

On an annual basis the RPPI in the third quarter of 2019 rose by 2.8%, while the apartment price index marked an annual increase of 4.4% and house price index gaining 2.2% compared with Q3 of 2018.

The district of Pafos registered the largest increase in the house prices index with 4.3% while Larnaca recorded the highest increase in apartment price index with 8.3%, the CBC said.

“The rise in apartment prices mainly concern in coastal areas and seem to partially reflect demand by foreigners stemming from the Cyprus Invest Programme and residence permits,” the CBC said, noting that “demand from foreigners seem to decline in the second half of 2019 due to stricter criteria for the CIP in May 2019.”

“This (stricter criteria) is expected to affect the upward momentum of the real estate sector in 2020,” the CBC said.