RICS: Property and rental prices fall across Cyprus

Based on the results of RICS’ Property Price Index, which tracks property and rental prices across all districts and main property types, compared to Q4 2012, prices dropped by 13.3% for apartments, 10.5% for houses, 19.8% for retail, 12.8% for office, and 15.4% for warehouses, in the Q4 2013.

“The Property Price Index has recorded falls in almost all cities and asset classes, with significant falls being recorded in Nicosia. Nicosia is clearly feeling the impact on the government and banking sector (the two sectors who dominate the local employment market), whilst other cities are progressively bottoming out” RICS said.

On a quarterly basis, across Cyprus, residential prices for both houses and flats fell by 1.6% and 0.5% respectively, with the biggest drop being in Larnaca (1.4% for houses) and Nicosia (6.8% for flats). Values of retail properties fell by an average of 3.2%, whilst those of offices and warehouses fell by 1.4% and 0.7% respectively.

Compared to the Q3 2013 rental values decreased by 1.0% for apartments, 1.3% for houses, 3.0% for retail units, 1.4% for warehouses, and 1.6% for offices, in the last quarter of 2013.

On an annual basis, rents dropped by 13.3% for flats, 12.3% for houses, 29.4% for retail, 18.0% for warehouses, and 18.8% for offices, compared to Q4 2012.