House prices and rents in the EU have followed very different paths since the financial crisis. While rents increased steadily throughout the period up to the third quarter of 2019, house prices have fluctuated significantly, Eurostat data showed.

After an initial sharp decline following the financial crisis, house prices remained more or less stable between 2009 and 2014. Then there was a rapid rise in early 2015, since when house prices have increased at a much faster pace than rents.

Over the period 2007 until the third quarter of 2019 rents increased by 21.0% and house prices by 19.1%.

Between 2007 and the third quarter of 2019, there were increases in house prices in 22 EU Member States and decreases in 6, with the highest rises in Austria (+85.5%), Luxembourg (+80.6%) and Sweden (+80.3%). The largest decreases were observed in Greece (-40.0%), Romania (-27.2%) and Ireland (-16.7%).

For rents, the pattern was different with increases in all Member States, except Greece* (-17.5%) and Cyprus (-0.3%). The largest increases were observed in Lithuania (+101.1%), Czechia (+78.6%) and Hungary (+67.8%).