Cyprus - House Price Index

For Cyprus, the residential property price index (RPPI) is a set of hedonic price indexes for houses and apartments (flats), produced by the Central Bank of Cyprus from data collected by 12 member banks. Data Buffet carries an excerpt.

• Measurement: Fixed-base index relative to 2010Q1 (Index 2010Q1=100)
• Adjustment: Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
• Native frequency: Quarterly
• Start date: Uniformly 2006Q1
• Geo coverage: Country only

The source writes:

The indices are based on property valuation data collected since 2006 by the contracted banks, which receive the relevant information from independent property surveyors in connection with mortgage transactions, such as housing loans, mortgage refinancing and mortgage collateral. The data, which are representative of the Cyprus property market, cover all the areas under the effective control of the Republic of Cyprus (Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos and Famagusta) and refer to residential properties (houses and apartments). The base period for all the indices is the first quarter of 2010 (i.e. 2010Q1=100).

The 2012Q1 report explains:

The residential property price index and other residential property price indices and sub-indices presented in the current report are produced by the Real Estate Unit of the Economic Research Department at the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC).

Data from 2006 to 2009 were collected retrospectively from a number of monetary financial institutions. The data for the period after 2009 are collected by the CBC from the member banks of the Association of Cyprus Banks (BOC, Marfin Popular Bank, Greek bank, Alpha Bank, Emporiki Bank, National Bank of Greece, Piraeus Bank, USB Bank, Cyprus Development Bank, Societe Generale and Eurobank) and the Cooperative Central Bank in a standardized form, through an online data submission platform.

The partnered banks receive the relevant information from independent property surveyors for the purpose of granting mortgage loans. The data received are representative of the Cyprus residential property market, covering the whole of the government controlled territory of the Republic of Cyprus (Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos and Famagusta districts) and they refer to all types of residential property (houses and apartments).

All the estimated indices have been rebased so that the first quarter of 2010 equals 100. The RPPI is calculated as the weighted sum of the two by type sub-indices (house and apartment price indices), using the quarterly number of observations as weights. In the same manner, the aggregate houses and apartment indices are the weighted sum of the by district houses and apartments price indices.

In constructing the indices the hedonic methodology was employed.

Moody's Analytics supplements

For each of the three indexes, we produce a seasonally adjusted counterpart using the U.S. Census Bureau's X-13ARIMA-SEATS program.

Between 2011Q4 and 2012Q1, the component indexes were revised over 2010Q2-2011Q4, and the RPPI from 2008Q1.

The 2012Q1 report explains:

The results of the residential property prices indices and sub-indices presented in the [2012Q1] have been revised compared to previous versions, in consequence of the submission of historical data to the CBC by the partner banks. Therefore, the availability of a larger data sample enabled the improvement of the various cleaning and filtering techniques applied to the data, as well as of the functional forms of the hedonic regressions employed for the production of the different price indices.

In 2012Q3, all periods (except 2010Q1) were revised again.

Further reading

At the source:

• Property valuation data (pdf)
• RPPI methodology (pdf)