In the third quarter of 2023, both house prices and rents in the EU increased by 0.8% compared with the second quarter of 2023.

Compared with the third quarter of 2022, house prices in the EU decreased by -1.0%, while rents increased by 3.0%. 

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 comparable increasing path between 2010 and the second quarter of 2011. After this quarter, house prices and rents evolved differently. While rents increased steadily throughout this period up to the second quarter of 2023, house prices fluctuated considerably. 

Line chart: House prices and rents, EU, Index levels (2010=100), Q1 2010 - Q3 2023

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. A rapid rise followed in early 2015, and house prices increased faster than rents until the third quarter of 2022. Since the fourth quarter of 2022, house prices fell for two quarters in a row before rising again in the second and third quarter of 2023.

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

Between 2010 and the third quarter of 2023, house prices increased by 48% and rents by 22%.

When comparing the third quarter of 2023 with 2010, house prices increased more than rents in 18 out of the 27 EU countries. 

Column chart: House prices and rents, % change between 2010 and Q3 2023

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

Over this period, house prices more than tripled in Estonia (+210%) and more than doubled in Hungary (+185%), Lithuania (+158%), Latvia (+141%), Austria (+123%), Czechia (+122%) and Luxembourg (+107%). Decreases were observed in Greece (-14%, see methodological notes), Italy (-8%) and Cyprus (-2%).

Rents increased in 26 EU countries with the highest rises in Estonia (+218%), Lithuania (+170%) and Ireland (+100%). The only decrease in rent prices was recorded in Greece (-20%).

For more information

Methodological notes

  • House Prices: data from Bank of Greece; 2022 instead of third quarter of 2023.
  • Switzerland: data for house prices between 2010 and Q3 2023 not available.

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