In the first quarter of 2018, the House Price Index (HPI) rose 12.2% in relation to the same quarter of the previous year, 1.7 percentage points (p.p.) more than in the fourth quarter of 2017. This was the fifth consecutive quarter in which dwelling prices accelerated. For this period, prices of existing dwellings increased by 13.0%, the highest rate of change in the available series. New dwelling prices also increased significantly by 9.7%, 3.8 p.p. more than in the previous quarter.
Compared to the last quarter of 2017, the HPI increased 3.8%, the highest quarter-on-quarter growth rate ever observed. Existing dwelling prices increased less than new dwelling prices, with the former rising 3.6% and the latter 4.4%.
A total of 40,716 dwellings were traded in the first three months of 2018, 15.7% more than the number of transactions recorded for the same period in 2017. Houses sales in this period exceeded the 5.4 billion euros, 25.7% more than in the first quarter of 2017.