Prices for older detached houses in the Helsinki region declined by 2.4 percent in the second quarter compared to a year earlier, Statistics Finland said on Wednesday. In the rest of the country prices held firm, edging up by an average of three-tenths of a percent.
The report shows the continuing huge gap between real estate values in the capital region and the rest of the country. The average price tag per square metre in the Greater Helsinki area was 3,075 euros, more than double the level elsewhere: 1,484 euros. The national average in spring and early summer was 1,610 euros.
Apartments, new houses in demand
Overall, prices for old single-family houses have fallen since Statistics Finland launched its current indexing system in 2015, based on real estate transactions registered by the National Land Survey.
The biggest drop has been in Eastern Finland, where the average cost per square metre in the April-to-June period was 1,263 euros.
Prices for flats have risen while those for older houses have slumped. Nationally, apartments have gained an average of seven percent in value since 2015, gaining more than 11 percent in the Helsinki region.
The cost of new houses, too, has risen, up 2.8 percent year-on-year in the second quarter in the whole country. Prices are up by more than one-fifth since that index began in 2010.