1.5 million enterprises in the EU’s real estate sector

In 2021, 1.5 million enterprises in the EU had their core business in the real estate sector, representing 4.8% of all active enterprises in the EU’s business economy. This marked an 11% increase from 2020 (1.3 million enterprises).

In 2021, the real estate sector employed 2.7 million people, representing 1.7% of total employment in the business economy. This sector contributed €267.5 billion in value added, accounting for 2.8% of value added created by the EU’s business economy. Furthermore, the sector reported a net turnover of €521.5 billion in 2021.

Among EU countries, the highest contribution of this sector to the value added of the business economy total in 2021 was recorded in Estonia (5.5%), followed by Sweden and Latvia (both at 5.2%), Austria (3.9%) and Denmark (3.8%). Conversely, the lowest contributions were observed in Ireland (0.5%), Cyprus (1.0%), Slovenia (1.4%), Croatia (1.6%) and Greece (1.8%).

Source dataset: sbs_ovw_act

Regarding employment, Latvia reported the highest share (4.2%), followed by Estonia (3.3%), Denmark (2.9%), Lithuania (2.8%) and Sweden (2.4%). The lowest shares of employment in the real estate sector within the business economy total were recorded in Greece (0.8%), Slovenia (0.9%), Croatia, the Netherlands and Cyprus (all at 1.0%).