After stalling last year, apartment price increases regained momentum in the first half of the year. The strongest growth is in coastal cities.
"The average price of housing increased by 14.6% in six-month terms and by 41.7% compared to a year earlier. For Tirana, the index increased by 5.1% in six-month terms and 32.6% compared to a year earlier," says the Bank of Albania.
Due to high prices, the time to sell a property has increased compared to previous years, influenced according to the Central Bank by developments in the Tirana market, where it takes at least 12 months to sell a property.
"Agents report an unchanged number of registered homes on their books. The net balance between those reporting an increase in the number of registered homes and those reporting a decrease in their number was neutral. The number of unsold properties, both for residential and commercial buildings, has continued to decline," NAREA Executive Director Reinaldo Pipiria told A2 CNN.
The survey shows that construction costs have increased in this first period of the year but at much lower rates than property prices in the country. During the first half of this year, a decrease in the number of properties purchased by foreign citizens was also observed, falling below 20 percent according to the bank.
"Over 60% of agents report that they have made sales at a lower price than that requested by the seller. This value is higher than that of the two previous periods. Among these, in about 2/3 of the cases, the sale was with a reduction of between 5-20 percent from the price requested by the seller. This indicator is also higher than that of the two previous periods," added Pipiria.
In the first 6 months of the year alone, citizens received 362 million euros in loans for home purchases, or 24 percent more than the same period a year ago.
