The European real estate market recovered broadly in 2025. According to the Eurostat House Price Index, euro area house prices rose 5.1% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2025. For the EU as a whole, the increase was 5.5%. Q4 2025 thus confirms a trend visible from 2024, after a brief stabilisation between summer 2022 and end-2023.
Leaders and laggards
Eurostat published increases for 25 of the 26 member states for which data are available. The largest annual increases were in:
- Hungary: +21.2%
- Portugal: +18.9%
- Croatia: +16.1%
At the other end stood Finland with a decline of 3.1%: the only member state with an annual price drop. The Dutch market saw an average increase in line with the EU average, with regional outliers in and around the Randstad.
Long term: 57.9% since 2010
Between Q1 2010 and Q1 2025, European house prices rose 57.9% according to Eurostat, while rents rose in the same period. This gap shows that house prices grow faster than rents, a pattern that puts pressure on affordability for younger buyers and structurally changes the price-to-rental-income ratio.
