The price of old apartments continued to fall in February, according to Statistics Finland.
In Finland's six largest cities, prices fell by 5.5 percent in February, compared to the same month last year. In other areas of the country prices dropped by around 4.4 percent.
The capital region saw old apartment housing prices decline by 6.1 percent in February, year-on-year, but prices increased by around 1.2 percent compared to the previous month.
Prices fell less in Turku and Oulu, compared to other larger cities in Finland.
Overall, apartment building prices fell by 5.8 percent across the country, while prices of terraced houses dropped by 3.7 percent compared to last year.
Volumes down
Sales volumes of old apartments and row houses were also down by 32 percent in February.
Economist Juho Keskinen from Finland-based mortgage lender Hypo, said that volume slump reflects around 2,000 fewer sales than normal. The downturn also affects the state's tax coffers, as hundreds of millions of euros in property transfer taxes are not being charged.
Keskinen also noted that consumer confidence is still quite weak, people's plans to purchase homes are at their lowest level in seven years and consumers' overall outlook for the Finnish economy remains unclear.
"Belief in the future will return as inflation and interest rates settle down. In uncertain times, buyers should take a closer look at an apartment's location, as well as the housing association's financial situation and ownership base," Keskinen said.
However, he said there is some hope in the air, as consumer confidence levels are creeping back up, pointing to February's housing price increase, compared to January.
In a tweet, Handelsbanken's chief economist Timo Hirvonen said he also saw signs of improvement, noting that "apartment prices rose by 1.2 percent compared to January."
However, Veera Holappa, economist at Pellervo Economic Research Institute PTT, suggested it was too soon to declare an ease in housing price declines after only one month.
"The bottom may have been reached, but whether we can get up from there cannot be said yet," Holappa said in a Twitter conversation thread.