Home prices in Denmark are rising again as a housing market rebound spreads across the Nordic region following some of the deepest routs in Europe.
(Bloomberg) — Home prices in Denmark are rising again as a housing market rebound spreads across the Nordic region following some of the deepest routs in Europe.
Danish house prices rose 1.2% in March from February, the first increase in nine months, real estate data provider Boligsiden said on Thursday. Prices for apartments and for vacation homes also rose, according to the non-seasonally adjusted data.
Prices have also rebounded in past months in Sweden, which underwent one of the steepest slides in home values globally, as well as in Norway and Finland. Yet economists have cautioned that market stabilization doesn’t mean the trough has been reached as the central banks in the region aren’t done with borrowing cost increases yet.
“There are several indications that Danish households are in better conditions,” Birgit Daetz, a housing economist at Boligsiden, said. “Inflation is not rising at the same pace as before, while energy prices have also calmed down. In addition, many Danes face small salary increases this year.”
Denmark had the European Union’s steepest house price decline in the fourth quarter, at 6.5% from a year earlier, according to Eurostat data, followed by Sweden, Germany and Finland.
A small recovery in Swedish home prices gathered pace in March, while housing prices in Norway have now gained for four months. In Finland, prices of older dwellings rose in February for the first time in eight months, according to its statistics office.
Denmark’s inflation rate is down at 6.7% from a four-decade peak of 10.1% in October and consumer confidence has also improved. Still, even with March’s increase, house prices remain 9.5% below the peak.
“We’re seeing a small comeback,” Jeppe Juul Borre, the chief economist at Arbejdernes Landsbank A/S, said in a note. “Even though one has to be careful about concluding too much from one month of increases, there are several factors that point to a better direction for the housing market.”
(Updates with details, background from first paragraph.)
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