House price index, Q1 2013

The price development was almost the same for the different types of housing from the fourth quarter last year to the first quarter of 2013. The prices of row houses increased by 3.2 per cent, while flats and detached houses increased by 2.9 and 2.8 per cent respectively.

House prices are on average 6.0 per cent higher now than at the same time last year. Flats cost 8.1 per cent more than in the first quarter of 2012, while the prices of row houses and detached houses have increased by 5.7 and 5.3 per cent respectively during the same period.

Strongest growth in Trondheim last year

From the first quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013, house prices in Trondheim had the highest rise, by 11.5 per cent. Prices for detached houses and flats in blocks increase by 15.4 and 13.3 per cent, while the growth was 5.7 per cent for row houses.

In Trøndelag without Trondheim the increase in prices was lower than the national average. House prices in Hedmark and Oppland had the lowest increase, by 1.8 per cent during the last year.

Nordic comparison

After the financial crisis, prices of detached houses developed differently in the Nordic countries. From the fourth quarter of 2008 to the fourth quarter of 2012, prices of detached houses in Norway and Sweden increased by 32.5 and 11.6 per cent respectively, while in Denmark the prices decreased by 8.5 per cent. In the fourth quarter of 2012 the cost of houses in Sweden and Denmark was 2.1 and 0.3 per cent higher respectively than the same quarter last year. During the same period, prices of detached houses in Norway increased by 5.9 per cent.

A total of 18 018 house sales are used in the index calculations for the first quarter of 2013.