Housing prices increased by 5.2% in 2019 in what was the fifth consecutive year of growth, show data released by the Statistics Office on Monday. The number of real estate transactions was up 4%, mostly on account of sold used flats, while the value of the deals amounted to EUR 1.3 billion, an increase of roughly 6% on 2018.
The continuation of growth came after the housing market started recovering in 2015 with 0.1% growth to then see prices rise by 6.9% in 2016, by 10% in 2017 and by 9.1% in 2018, said the office.
The total number of real estate deals made last year was 13,682, which is a 4% increase on 2019 but 8% less than in the record year 2017.
The office pointed out that the sale of new units had been very modest for two years now, while the sale of used units was going strong, with 3,458 transactions recorded in the last quarter of 2019 alone for a record total amount of EUR 340 million.
Used flats accounted for 2,141 transactions in the last quarter of 2019, which compares to only 107 new housing units sold for a total of EUR 18 million. The latter was still an increase on 70 units sold in the third quarter.
The prices of new flats have seen fluctuations in the past four years, but a clear growth was recorded. In the last quarter of 2019 they were 26.9% higher on average than in 2015.
The prices of used housing units fell in the last quarter of 2019 for the first time after 15 consecutive quarters of growth. They were down by 0.2%, but merely on account of a 3.6% decrease in the prices of used houses as used flats were 1.7% dearer. In Ljubljana, used flats were 0.4% more expensive.
Year-on-year, the biggest increase in prices was seen in the last quarter for new houses (10.9%), followed by used flats in regions other than the capital (7.1%), new flats in general (6.3%), used houses (3.8%) and used flats in Ljubljana (3.2%).