Apartment prices continued to fall in the third quarter, houses and land became more expensive, the HB Index showed

Apartment prices fell by 1.1 percent quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of this year. Their prices have been falling for a year, in the second quarter the rate of decline was 2.1 percent. On the contrary, the discounting of family houses stopped after six months, and in a quarter-on-quarter comparison, prices rose by 0.3 percent. Land prices increased by 1.1 percent, but the rate of growth slowed compared to previous periods. This follows from the HB Index, which was provided to ČTK by Hypoteční banka, which belongs to the ČSOB group.

Year-on-year, apartment prices fell by 6.2 percent in the third quarter, a yearly high. Smaller and larger apartments are cheaper the fastest. “We now expect that apartment prices will stabilize in the following period, but we may even be approaching a turning point. Compared to the previous quarter, interest in 3+1 and 3+kk apartment units increased, the prices of which fell the slowest. The most of all categories flats, the prices of small 1+1 flats fell, which is atypical, because previously it was the other way around. The prices of large 4+kk and larger flats also fell faster than in the previous period, where delayed demand can play a role,” said Hypoteční banka CEO Martin Vasek.

The strongest quarter-on-quarter discount was by 3.4 percent in the Moravian-Silesian Region, which, according to Hypoteční banka, is due, among other things, to the large number of sales of panel apartments in housing estates. Pardubice Region followed with a decrease of 1.8 percent and Ústí Region with a decrease of 1.4 percent. Apartment prices in Prague fell by 1.1 percent, i.e. at a faster pace than in the Central Bohemia region, where the decline was 0.6 percent. The largest decrease in Prague was for panel apartments in the large housing estates of Prague 4, Prague 8 and Prague 9. In Central Bohemia, housing units in the districts of Rakovník and Příbram fell the most.

The number of apartments sold in the first to third quarters fell by 14 percent year-on-year. The supply of older apartments has stabilized, on the contrary, in the case of new buildings, the supply has fallen and, according to Hypoteční banka, there is uncertainty regarding the possible start of new construction projects. The selling period of apartments has not changed much and reaches an average of six months. Rental housing remains popular. “The young generation simply does not buy so-called starter apartments, but goes straight to rent. The market has stabilized in this respect and prices are stagnant,” said Vašek.