How Cyprus house price indices work

The indices you will see quoted#

Three published indices cover Cyprus residential property, and a fourth set of official figures is often quoted alongside them but is not an index at all.

The Department of Lands and Surveys series counts how many contracts of sale are deposited and how many transfers are registered. It says nothing about price levels, and it is covered separately in Cyprus contracts of sale and on the Cyprus property transfers page.

What each one measures, and how often it is published#

Central Bank of Cyprus RPPI#

The Central Bank of Cyprus states that the indices "are based on property valuation data collected since 2006 by the partnered credit institutions, which receive the relevant information from independent property valuers for several purposes such as housing loans", and that the data "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)".¹ They are built by the bank's Real Estate Unit and published quarterly.¹

The methodology report explains how the index is constructed. It says that "in constructing the various valuation price indices and sub-indices, the hedonic methodology was used": a regression separates the part of a price change caused by a different mix of properties from the part caused by the market itself, so the result is quality constant rather than a simple average.² The characteristics used, including size, age, condition, district, planning zone and sea view, were found to explain "about 70% of the market value of a residential property in the CBC databases".² The index formula is a Fisher index, the geometric average of the Laspeyres and Paasche indices, and the all-residential index is "calculated as the weighted sum of the two by type indices, i.e. houses and flats, using their respective quarterly number of observations as weights".²

Source: Central Bank of Cyprus. Retrieved 29 Oct 2026.

Latest official release: Q2 2026 · Next expected: December 2026

Chart by the Cyprus Property Network · CC BY 4.0 · CSV · JSON · Permalink

RICS Cyprus Property Index with KPMG in Cyprus#

RICS describes this as "a quarterly price and rental index that tracks property and rental prices across all districts and main property types in Cyprus".⁵ Its methodology "was developed by the University of Reading, UK".⁶

The index works differently from the Central Bank's. It "monitors the urban centres of Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos and Paralimni-Famagusta" and "only tracks prices in Republic of Cyprus' government controlled area and not in the occupied North".⁶ In each centre it monitors "the Market Value and Market Rent, as defined in the RICS Red Book, across the four main property sectors – office (CBD), retail (high street), industrial (warehouse) and residential (houses and apartments)".⁶ Crucially, it "monitors hypothetical or notional buildings, each having specific characteristics", and the estimates come from "accredited RICS property professionals who are active in the relevant markets".⁶ Prices per square metre are quoted on Gross External Area as defined in the RICS’ Code of Measurement Practice (8th edition), which "includes the living area and covered verandas but excludes common areas".⁶

So the Central Bank index tracks what valuers wrote about real properties that banks lent against, while the RICS index tracks what experienced valuers judge a defined standard building to be worth in a defined sub-district.

Eurostat House Price Index#

Eurostat publishes a quarterly House Price Index that "shows the price changes of residential properties purchased by households (flats, detached houses, terraced houses, etc.), both newly built and existing".⁷ It is compiled under European Parliament and Council Regulation (EU) 2016/792 of 11 May 2016.⁷ Eurostat prints the reference period on each table, so check it before comparing a Eurostat figure with a national one.

Why the numbers differ from each other#

The Central Bank's own methodology report puts it plainly: "it is very unlikely that different price indices will record the same numerical results, particularly in the case were the methodologies and/or the database used differ, even though one should expect that these follow the same trend."²

The main reasons:

• Different raw data: valuations prepared for mortgage lending, valuers' estimates for notional buildings, and household purchase prices reported to a statistical office are three different populations.
• Different coverage: the Central Bank index covers houses and flats across all five districts. The RICS index covers named urban centres and includes offices, retail and warehouses as well as homes.
• Different geography: an index for named urban centres and sub-districts is not the same thing as an index for a whole administrative district.
• Different base periods, which change the level of the number but not the growth rate.

The report also flags a property of valuation-based indices generally: they "tend to present smaller fluctuations than price indices based on transaction data" and "tend to exhibit a lagging relation when compared to actual changes in market prices".² A valuation-based index will usually turn later and move less sharply than the market it describes.

Base periods, rebasing and what "= 100" means#

An index has no units. It says only how the current level compares with a chosen reference period, which is set to 100.¹

The Central Bank sets the reference at the first quarter of 2010: "The base period for all the indices is the first quarter of 2010 (i.e. 2010Q1=100)."¹ So the all-Cyprus index reading of 109.68 in Q2 2026 means residential property was 9.68% above its Q1 2010 level, not that anything costs €109.68.⁴ Against the Q1 2026 reading of 107.12 that is a rise of 2.4% quarter on quarter (derived: 109.68 divided by 107.12, minus 1).⁴ The RICS report's long-term price chart is drawn on a different base, 2009 Q4 = 100, and its holiday-asset chart on 2016 Q1 = 100, so its line cannot be laid over the Central Bank's.⁶

Rebasing, which every statistical office does from time to time, divides the whole series by the value in the new reference period. Every level changes; no percentage change between two quarters changes. If a figure looks wrong against one you remembered, check the base period first.

Reading a year-on-year change without being misled#

Compare a quarter with the same quarter a year earlier, not with the quarter before, and remember that the percentage depends as much on where the comparison starts as on where it ends.

The Paphos district series shows this. The Central Bank index for Paphos was 96.21 in Q1 2024, 108.60 in Q1 2025 and 115.59 in Q1 2026.³ The year-on-year change therefore fell from 12.9% to 6.4% (derived: 108.60 divided by 96.21, and 115.59 divided by 108.60, each minus 1).³ Prices rose in both years. Only the rate of increase slowed. A headline saying growth "halved" describes the second derivative, not a fall in prices.

Two further habits help. Quote the period with every figure, because "the index rose 6.4%" is meaningless without it.³ And do not convert an index change into a euro amount for a particular home: the index is quality constant across a whole district, and any single property can move differently.

Revisions, provisional figures and coverage gaps#

• Revisions: when the Central Bank revises a cell, the workbook marks it with a trailing "r" and footnotes it, as the 2026 Q1 workbook did for flats in the Famagusta District for 2025 Q4.³ A figure quoted from an older release may no longer match the current series.
• Coverage gaps in the Central Bank series: all-Cyprus and district totals begin in 2006 Q1, but the flats and houses breakdowns by district only begin in 2010 Q1; earlier cells are marked "na".⁴
• The RICS index level is not published as a number: the quarterly report draws its long-term trend as a chart and prints percentage changes; no numeric index table appears in the publication, so the level cannot be quoted from it, only the direction and the percentages.⁶
• No official average price: no Cyprus authority publishes an average or median price paid for a home by district. The nearest official figures are the DLS declared transfer totals and the RICS notional prices per square metre; averages on listing sites are asking prices, not official statistics.
• Publication lag: both quarterly indices appear well after the quarter they cover. The Central Bank published its 2026 Q2 index on 24 September 2026, with the all-Cyprus reading at 109.68.¹⁴ RICS published its 2026 Q2 report on 25 August 2026.⁵

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