Residential property prices in Cyprus continued to fall in the final quarter of 2014 but some local agents are reporting an increase in sales, according to the latest quarterly index from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), which found that the average price of houses fell by 1.1% and apartments by 0.7% in Q4 2014.

The country’s property market was badly hit during the global economic downturn of 2007 and since the RICS index was first published in 2010, house prices have fallen by an average of 30% and apartment prices by 40%.

The largest quarterly falls were in Famagusta where house prices fell by 3.6% and in Nicosia where apartment prices were down 1.1%. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2013, the average price of an apartment has fallen 5% and the average price of a three bed home is down 5.4%.

RICS said that sales have rebounded but prices are expected to continue falling in 2015. The situation is not helped by a strict lending regime following the island’s banking crisis plus high interest rates.

Rental values are also still on a downward trend, with house rents down 0.2% and apartment rents down 1.3%.