But the trend is firmly upwards
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Residential property prices in
The BuySell Home Price Index dropped by 0.4% according to our calculations to 117.07 in November, from 117.60 in October, bringing the Average Home Price to CYP 91,213 (around EUR 155,000).
However, monthly fluctuations in house prices should be taken with a pinch of salt, given that the last part of the year is not normally the best for real estate sales.
Looking at longer-term figures, the trend is firmly upwards. Home prices in November were 6.3% higher than in January and home prices in Jan-November rose by 5.4% over Jan-Nov 2005.
At the risk of comparing apples with pears, this broadly appears to match the recent trend in the value of permits authorised.
After a dip in the first few months of the year, the value of building permits authorised rose by 8.3% year on year in Jan-October, compared with a low of 2.9% in January-March.
The BuySell Home Price Index was created and is updated monthly on behalf of BuySell Cyprus Real Estate by the independent economic research organisation S. Platis ECONOMIC RESEARCH. The Index is announced during the second week of each month and depicts the movement of prices at which residential properties are sold in
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Residential dominates
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The value of building permits authorised in
In the same period the number of building permits rose by 8.3% and the area of permits rose by 3.8%.
By far the biggest concentration of value is in residential buildings permits, worth CYP 1.0 bln. Of this, more than half (CYP 526 mln) is accounted for by single houses. These rose in value by 5.4% compared with Jan-Oct 2005.
However, if it is value growth that you are after, then the hottest place to be is in the niche markets. The 8 “residencies for communities” authorised in Jan-Oct 2006 were valued at only CYP 1.9 mln, but climbed 355.5% in value compared with those authorised Jan-Oct 2005.
Similarly, the 31 “cottage apartment complexes”, valued at just CYP 28.9 mln, climbed 273.8% in value compared with those authorised in 2005.
Among the large categories, the biggest growth by value has been in residential apartment blocks, up by 10.8% to CYP 300.4 mln, and residential/commercial mix apartment blocks, up by 17.9% to CYP 55 mln.
Authorisations of office buildings have fallen steeply, by 41.1% in value and 25.8% in number.
After a strong start civil engineering has also fallen in value, although the number of projects authorised is still 45.6% higher than last year. Civil engineering projects probably relate mainly to the long overdue upgrades of Larnaca and Paphos airports.
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Fiona Mullen, Sapienta Economics Ltd
