House prices in Croatia, as measured by Eurostat's House Price Index, increased in January-March 2016 by 1.2% compared with the previous three months when they rose by a marginal 0.1%.
Their growth was considerably weaker than in Hungary which recorded the highest quarterly increase in house prices of 5.2%. Croatia ranked with Bulgaria, where house prices went up by 1.1%, the Czech Republic (+1.0%), the Netherlands and Spain (both +1.4%).
The largest quarterly decreases were observed in Cyprus (-3.4%) and Malta (-2.8).
In the 28-member EU, house prices increased by 0.7% in the first quarter of 2016 after increasing by 0.4% at the end of 2015. The 19-member euro area recorded a more modest increase in house prices, of 0.4%, in comparison with the previous quarter when they almost stagnated.
Compared with the first quarter of 2015, houses prices in Croatia stabilised at a growth rate of 0.2%. In the previous quarter, they decreased by 2.1% year on year.
The largest increases in house prices compared with the first quarter of 2015 were recorded in Hungary (+15.2%, Austria (+13.4%) and Sweden (+12.5%), while decreases were observed only in Italy and Cyprus (both -1.2%).
House prices in the EU28 went up by 4.0% in the first quarter of 2016 compared with the same period of the previous year, while in the euro area they increased by 3.0%.