Rents rise, house prices fall in the EU in Q1 2023

In the first quarter of 2023, house prices in the EU decreased by -0.7% compared with the fourth quarter of 2022, while rents increased by 0.9%. This is the second quarterly decrease of house prices in a row after a -1.4% decrease in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Compared with the first quarter of 2022, rents and house prices in the EU increased with a 2.9% rise in rents and a 0.8% increase in house prices. 

This information comes from data on rents and house prices published by Eurostat today. This article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on housing price statistics.

House prices and rents in the EU followed a similar increasing path between 2010 and the second quarter of 2011. However, after this quarter, house prices and rents have evolved differently. While rents increased steadily throughout this period up to the first quarter of 2023, house prices fluctuated considerably. 

Source datasets: prc_hpi_q and prc_hicp_midx

After a sharp decline between the second quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2013, house prices remained more or less stable between 2013 and 2014. After a rapid rise in early 2015, house prices increased faster than rents until the second quarter of 2022. In the third quarter of 2022, house prices increased at the same pace as rents (both +0.7% compared with the second quarter of 2022). Since the fourth quarter of 2022, house prices have started to fall whereas rents continued to increase.

From 2010 until the first quarter of 2023, rents increased by 20% and house prices by 46%.

House prices more than doubled in Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Czechia and Austria

When comparing the first quarter of 2023 with 2010, house prices increased more than rents in 18 EU countries. 

Source datasets: prc_hpi_a, prc_hpi_q, tipsho20, prc_hicp_aind, prc_hicp_midx
 

Over this period, house prices increased in 24 EU countries and decreased in three. They more than doubled in Estonia (+200%), Hungary (+180%), Lithuania (+146%), Latvia (+132%), Luxembourg (+126%), Czechia (+123%) and Austria (+122%). Decreases were observed in Greece (-14%, see methodological notes), Italy (-9%) and Cyprus (-2%).

For rents, prices increased in 26 EU countries and decreased in one, with the highest rises in Estonia (+212%) and Lithuania (+165%). The only decrease was recorded in Greece (-22%).