In the second quarter of 2019 Croatia was among EU countries with the most marked increases in house prices compared to the same period of 2018, and those prices were more than two times higher than the European average, show figures released by the European statistical office Eurostat on Monday.

House prices in Croatia grew 10.4% in Q2 compared to Q2 2018. The growth of house prices thus picked up year-on-year, after a 7.4% increase in the first three months of 2019.

A more marked increase in house prices was reported also by Hungary, +14%, and Luxembourg, +11.4%. In Portugal, house prices grew by 10.1%.

According to available data, a year-on-year decrease in house prices was reported only by Italy, of 0.2%.

House prices, as measured by the House Price Index, rose by 4.2% in both the euro area and the EU in the second quarter of 2019 compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

Luxembourg also among countries with highest quarterly increase in house prices

Compared with the previous quarter, house prices increased in all member states for which the data were available. The highest increases were recorded in Latvia (+5.6%), Luxembourg (+5.1%) and Cyprus (+4.2%).

In Croatia, house prices in Q2 grew by 2.6% compared to Q1, when they went up 3.5%.

None of the countries reported a quarterly decrease in house prices.

At the EU level, house prices in Q2 grew by 1.6% from Q1, when they grew by 0.4% according to revised data.

The quarterly increase in house prices was even faster in the euro area, of 1.7%, as against a 0.3% increase in Q1.