The Central Bank of Malta has reported that property price inflation has moderated again after having risen since March 2009.

The Bank said in the Quarterly Review, published today, that the annual rate of change in advertised property prices, which in the March quarter had risen above zero for the first time since 2008, remained in positive territory during the second quarter of 2010, but the growth rate moderated to 0.5% from 4.5% three months earlier.

The overall increase was primarily due to higher prices for apartments and, to a lesser extent, for townhouses, houses of character and villas.

During the June quarter, prices of apartments – which make up slightly more than half of properties surveyed – rose by 3.6% on a year earlier, contributing almost 1.5 percentage points to overall property price inflation.

Prices of maisonettes dropped by 7.7% on a year earlier, accounting for around a negative 1.5 percentage points in overall property price inflation, while prices of terraced houses remained unchanged.

The bank said the supply of properties coming onto the market declined further in the second quarter of 2010, when the number of properties advertised for sale contracted by 7.4% on a year earlier, compared with a 1.3% decline in the March quarter.

The number of building permits issued by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority declined by 3.6% year-on-year, following a drop of almost two-fifths in the previous quarter.