The last time the growth of the annual index, which is calculated as the average of four quarters, was bigger than this was in 2006, when the on-year growth was more than 40 percent, Egne Säinast, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said according to a press release.

"Last year, the prices of apartments went up by 22.8 percent and the prices of houses by 21.4 percent," Säinast added.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, the HPI increased by 16.9 percent on year, with the prices of houses rising by 13.8 percent and apartment prices by 18.5 percent.

Compared with the third quarter of 2022, the HPI increased by 0.2 percent.

The housing price index expresses changes in the prices per square meter of transactions made by households for the purchase of dwellings and is compiled for apartments and houses — with the latter category including detached and semidetached houses as well as rowhomes.

In 2022, the owner-occupied housing price index (OOHPI) increased by 17.6 percent on year.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, the index increased by 4.1 percent compared with the previous quarter and by 16.3 percent on year.

The OOHPI expresses changes in the prices of the acquisition of dwellings new to the household sector and other goods and services that houses purchase in their role as owner-occupiers.

This index consists of the acquisition of dwellings, other services related to the acquisition thereof, major repairs and maintenance as well as insurance connected with dwellings.

The primary representative of public interest for Estonia's HPI and OOHPI is the Ministry of Finance, on whose commission Statistics Estonia collects and analyzes the data necessary for conducting this statistical activity.

This data helps provide an overview of the current state of the Estonian economy.

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