FT launches ‘First European House Price Guide’

UK newspaper the Financial Times (FT) has launched, what it calls, the first European house price guide which brings together data from across Europe.

The company said that the launch of the dedicated microsite will help rectify the “lack of effective house price data in Europe” and is collated using official data from national statistics offices, central banks, land registry, surveys, lender valuations and will be updated on a ongoing basis. The microsite will allow the user to download selected data the statistics into a single excel spreadsheet.

The European house price information, can be accessed through an interactive map and graph covering annual, bi-monthly, quarterly and monthly figures from 1970 onwards. This allows the user to view hotspots across Europe on an interactive map and to view trends through interactive graphs capable of selecting individual countries over a period of time.

“Within Europe it is very hard to find out an individual country’s housing data, which is surprising considering the importance of the housing market to any country’s economy,” said Simon Briscoe, statistics editor, Financial Times. “The microsite will help provide investors and researchers with a resource that can be used to spot trends.”

As well as the varying house valuation data, the microsite also provides other essential information such as the country’s mortgage debt and offers analysis and commentary from FT journalists. The European House Price Guide follows the launch of its UK House Price Index earlier this year.