A Eurostat report published on Thursday showed that while house prices continued to rise, growth was slowing.

On a quarter by quarter basis, prices rose just 0.1% from the second to third quarter.

Figures from previous quarters show a much more buoyant annual growth of 7.8% for the last quarter of 2016, 7% for the first quarter of 2017 and 6.4% for the second quarter.

It is important to note that the Luxembourg figures reported by Eurostat excluded newly-built single family houses.

Across the euro area, strongest annual growth in house prices for the third quarter was recorded in Czech Republic (+12.3), Ireland (+12%) and Portugal (+10.4%). House prices, meanwhile, fell in Italy (-0.9%).