House prices fell by 1.4% in the euro area and by 0.1% in the EU in the fourth quarter of 2013 compared with the same quarter of the previous year, according to data published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Compared with the third quarter of 2013, house prices fell by 0.7% in the euro area and by 0.3% in the EU in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Among the EU Member States for which data are available, the largest annual falls in house prices in the fourth quarter of 2013 were recorded in Croatia (-14.4%), Cyprus (-9.4%) and Spain (-6.3%), and the highest increases in Estonia (+15.6%), Latvia (+7.9%) and Sweden (+7.0%).

The largest quarterly falls were recorded in Hungary (-1.8%), Spain (-1.3%), Denmark and Italy (both -1.2%), and the highest increases in Latvia (+2.7%), Estonia and Lithuania (both +2.6%) and Ireland (+2.5%).