How much you would have won if you had bought an apartment earlier this year

Mihaela Dumitrescu Posted on December 16, 2017• 3 min read

At the end of this year, market value per square meter for apartment buildings were considerably appreciated compared to the same period in 2016, in the major cities and countries.

Household valution is mandatory when contracting a mortgage loan or refinancing an older real estate credit, or if there is company headquarters in which the valuation will be done every five years. However, there are situations in which owners call directly to the valuers to find the most accurate value of their home, suitable for situations such as selling, sharing or dismantling (for example, in the case of a land, a land owned by several owners is divided to each of them).

To determine the value of a home, the area, location, or neighborhoods are important. The evaluator will take into account infrastructure and access, distance to schools, parks, shopping centers, public transport stations, etc.

For example, Paris real estate has been an incredible investment over the past year, rising dramatically in value. Not all of Paris arrondissements saw price growth in 2016, but all have seen massive growth since 1991. Prior to the well-publicized burst of the housing bubble and the resulting real estate crash that began in earnest in 2007, historical housing price data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) seemed to support the theory of endlessly rising prices.

Spanish house prices increased 2.67% during the year to end-Q1 2017 (0.38% inflation adjusted) to €1,385 per square metre, the fifth consecutive quarter of house price rises, according to TINSA. In 2016, the total number of home sales in Spain increased 14% to 457,689 units from the previous year, according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (INE).

In Denmark they actually pay you to borrow money, and the IMF is not happy with the effects on the property market. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently urged the Danish government to reverse its negative interest rates mandate and introduce new policies, such as zoning rules and relaxing rental market regulations, to avoid a disastruos housing bubble.

House prices in Belgium continue to rise modestly, amidst surging demand and a sharp increase in residential construction. During the year to Q3 2016, the nationwide house price index rose by 2.88% (0.75% inflation-adjusted), after annual rises of 2.19% in Q2 2016, 3.18% in Q1 2016, 1.52% in Q4 2015, and 2.82% in Q3 2015, according to the Statistics Belgium.

The Greek economy is expected to grow by 2.7% this year and by another 3.1% in 2018, mainly due to an upsurge in tourism. And after seven years of falling house prices, things are turning around.

In the U.S. there's likely no sector in economy as important as housing. In the first quarter of 2016, residential investment accounted for roughly half of the 1.1% increase in real GDP. That’s why housing has traditionally powered the American economy out of recessions, and that’s why housing’s role as the trigger of the Great Recession was so damning to the subsequent recovery. There’s evidence that the millennial generation has been slow to warm to the idea of homeownership, as they are generally delaying decisions like marriage and child rearing.