Property prices in Greece have fallen by 7.7% during Q1 2010 compared to same period last year according to the Foundation for Economic & Industrial Research and Propindex.

Prices dropped by 5.4% in the Attica region, which includes the capital Athens, and 9.8% in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-biggest city. Throughout the rest of Greece prices fell by 12.6% as the country entered its first recession since 1993.

Apartment prices fell back to levels last seen in 2006 having risen for two successive years.

Prime Minister George Papandreou has raised taxes, cut wages and reduced spending in a bid to tame a budget deficit that reached 13.6% of gross domestic product in 2009, more than four times the EU limit.