Residential property prices stabilise in the second quarter

The third quarterly review from the Central Bank shows disaggregated results reveal show both increases and decreases in the prices of different categories of dwellings.

The most significant increase during the second quar­ter was recorded in prices of maisonettes, which rose by an annual 5.6%. At the same time, prices of apartments, which make up almost three-fifths of the sampled properties, saw an increase of 3.3%.

On the other hand, asking prices for terraced houses dropped by 2.5%, while prices in the "other" category - which consists of townhouses, houses of character and villas - fell by 1.4%, largely as a result of a reduction in asking prices for houses of character.

The measure of activity in the housing market is provided by the number of advertised properties cap­tured in the Central Bank's survey. In the June quarter this grew by 14.6% on a year earlier, as against a 9.9% decline in the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, the number of build­ing permits issued by the Mal­ta Environment and Planning Authority between April and June increased by 13.0% on the pre­vious quarter.

This was mostly due a higher number of approved permits for apartments, which accounted for over four-fifths of the total issued. On a year-on-year basis, however, the over­all number of permits granted dropped by 17.4%, reflecting the exceptionally high number approved a year earlier.