Slide in property prices slows in Q1

A protracted downturn in Greece's residential property market slowed sharply in the first quarter of 2018, central bank data showed on Tuesday, raising hopes that prices were starting to respond to a recovering economy.

Property accounts for a large chunk of household wealth in Greece, which has one of the highest home ownership rates in Europe - 80 percent versus a European Union average of 70 percent, according to the European Mortgage Federation.

Apartment prices fell by 0.2 percent in the first three months of 2018 from a year earlier, Bank of Greece data showed, decelerating from a 1.9 percent decline in last year's first quarter.

In all of 2017, prices slid 1.0 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.

That took the cumulative fall since 2008, when the country's protracted recession began, to 42 percent.

The market has been hit...