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Bulgaria Sees Second-Highest House Price Surge in EU
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Photo: Stella Ivanova
Bulgaria registered the second-largest increase in housing prices among EU member states in the first quarter of 2025, according to Eurostat. Residential property prices in the country surged by 15.1% year-on-year for the period, placing Bulgaria just behind Portugal, where the increase reached 16.3%. Since 2010, Bulgarian house prices have risen by a total of 125%.
Across the eurozone, house prices rose by 5.4% in Q1 2025 compared to the same quarter of the previous year. For the entire European Union, the annual increase was slightly higher at 5.7%. In comparison, the fourth quarter of 2024 saw smaller gains - 4.1% in the euro area and 4.9% in the EU.
Quarter-on-quarter, the growth was more moderate. When comparing the first quarter of 2025 with the previous quarter (Q4 2024), housing prices went up by 1.3% in the eurozone and by 1.4% in the EU as a whole.
Out of the EU member states with available data, 25 reported an annual increase in housing prices in the first quarter of 2025. Only one country - Finland - recorded a decline, with house prices falling by 1.9%. Following Portugal and Bulgaria in the top three were Croatia, where prices rose by 13.1%.
Looking at the broader trend from 2010 through early 2025, property prices in the EU grew by 57.9%, while rental prices rose by 27.8%. The rent index has followed a steady upward trajectory, in contrast to the more uneven path of house prices. Between early 2015 and the third quarter of 2022, home prices climbed sharply, then slightly declined and leveled off before rising again from 2024 onwards.
Over this fifteen-year period, home prices outpaced rent increases in 21 out of 26 EU countries for which data is available. The steepest housing price growth was observed in Hungary, where prices have surged by 260% since 2010. Estonia follows with 238%. Nine other EU member states have seen housing prices at least double: Lithuania (+194%), Latvia (+154%), Czech Republic (+147%), Portugal (+130%), Bulgaria (+125%), Austria (+113%), Luxembourg and Poland (both +102%), and Slovakia (+100%). Italy stands alone as the only country where property prices have fallen over the period, down by 4%.
As for rental prices, all but one EU country saw increases since 2010. Estonia again leads the way with a 220% rise, followed by Lithuania (+184%), Hungary (+124%), and Ireland (+115%). Greece is the only member state where rents declined, registering a drop of 11% during the same timeframe.
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