Drop in apartment prices slows - other properties see prices rise

Prices for apartments and town houses dropped in the first quarter of this year, but other properties saw prices rise, the Central Bank of Malta said this afternoon. The prices of apartments declined by 2.4 per cent, compared to a drop of 3.2 per cent in the previous quarter. Apartments made up three-fifths of the survey sample. Properties such as houses of character and villas saw prices rise by as much as 4.9 per cent. Asking prices of maisonettes and terraced houses increased at a faster rate than the previous quarter, with maisonette prices rising by 2.3 per cent while those of terraced houses grew by 4.1 per cent. The number of advertised properties for sale in the first quarter was down by 12.4 per cent on a year earlier, compared to a 7.9 per cent declaine in the previous quarter.