Houses in Hungary and Estonia tripled in price from the last quarter of 2024 to 2010 — and rents are going up too.
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According to the latest Eurostat figures, the EU is facing a continued upward trend in housing costs.
In the last three months of 2024, house prices across the EU rose by 4.9%, while rents increased by 3.2% compared with the same period in 2023.
And in 2024, while house prices increased less than inflation in seven EU countries (Germany, France, Luxembourg, Austria, Romania, Finland and Sweden), they outpaced inflation in all other member states.
Between 2010 and 2024, house prices increased more than rents nationwide in 21 EU countries. Over the same period, house prices more than tripled in Hungary (+234%) and Estonia (+228%).
Meanwhile, house prices more than doubled in Lithuania (+187%), Latvia (+153%), the Czech Republic (+142%), Portugal (+120%), Bulgaria (+115%), Austria (+112%), and Luxembourg (+105%).
Italy was the only country where house prices decreased during this period, with a drop of 4%.
During the same period, rents increased in 26 EU countries, with the highest rises registered in Estonia (+212%), Lithuania (+175%), and Hungary (+114%).
Greece was the only country where rent prices decreased, with a fall of 13%.
Regional variations
The overall trend can mask significant regional variations, however. City centre properties in Germany, for instance, have seen sharper price declines compared to those in outlying neighbourhoods.
The seven largest German cities —Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, and Stuttgart — experienced significant differences in the price performance of apartments between 2023 and 2024.
Since 2022, house prices in the city centre of Hamburg have fallen by 17.8%, while those on the outskirts saw a decline of only 11.8%.
Similarly, Düsseldorf's central areas experienced a 17.5% drop, compared to a 12.4% decrease in non-central neighbourhoods.
Experts suggest that evolving housing preferences and the rise of remote work may be influencing these shifts.
"The rise in interest rates since 2022 may have led buyers to look for riskier but higher-yielding properties outside the city centres," said Jonas Zdrzalek, a real estate expert at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
"In addition, fewer buyer groups may simply be able to afford expensive city centre apartments due to inflation-related real wage losses."