EU housing market extremes: Hungary saw the biggest price rises, while only one country made housing cheaper
Hungary is the country in the European Union with the highest house price growth between 2015 and 2025. In only one country was housing cheaper last year than 10 years ago.
In Hungary, housing prices tripled between 2015 – 2025 PHOTO: Pixabay/Peter Toth
Eurostat data released this week shows a 5.5% increase in house prices in the European Union in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. Rents also rose, although the increase was less, at just 3.2%.
When we talk about the evolution of prices between 2015 and 2025, the increase in the price of housing at the level of the European Union is 64.9%, while rents increased by 21.8%.
Finland, the only country where housing became cheaper
The highest increase in house prices over the last 10 years was recorded in Hungary (+290%), while in 12 other countries prices doubled. After Hungary, Portugal (+180%), Lithuania (+168%) and Bulgaria (+157%) are the countries with the highest increases. The only EU country where housing was cheaper in 2025 compared to 2015, Eurostat data also shows, was Finland (-3%).
Rents, on the other hand, increased in all the countries of the European Union, Hungary being the champion in this chapter as well (+109%), followed by Lithuania (+88%) and Ireland and Poland (both +76%).
Romania remains the country with the most owners
When we talk about property status, at the level of the European Union, most citizens (68%) lived in an owner-occupied household in 2024, the other 32% living in rented properties. Germany is the only country in the EU where renters (53%) outnumber homeowners.
“The highest shares of home ownership were observed in Romania (94% of the population lived in a household that owned a home), Slovakia (93%), Hungary (92%) and Croatia (91%).
Home ownership was more common in all EU countries except Germany. In Germany, renting was more common, where 53% of the population were renters. This was followed by Austria (46%) and Denmark (39%)”, it is mentioned in “Housing in Europe – 2025 edition”.
By housing type, in 2024 the distribution showed that 51% of the EU population lived in a house, 48% of citizens lived in an apartment, and 1% lived in other types of accommodation such as houseboats and vans. Ireland (90%) had the highest share of the population living in a house, followed by the Netherlands and Belgium (both 77%) and Croatia (76%). The highest shares for apartments were observed in Spain (65%), Latvia (64%) and Malta (63%).
Regarding the average number of rooms/person, in 2024, in the EU the average was 1.7 rooms/person, the maximum being recorded in Malta (2.2 rooms/person), followed by Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (2.1 rooms), Slovakia and Romania being at the opposite pole, with 1.1 rooms.
The data of the statistical office of the European Union also indicated that approximately 17% of the EU population lives in an overcrowded home, the highest rates being in Romania (41%), Latvia (39%) and Bulgaria (34%), and the lowest in Cyprus (2%), Malta (4%) and the Netherlands (5%).
