What European country saw the biggest increase in house prices in Q3 2023?

Croatia saw the biggest increase in house prices in the European Union in the third quarter of 2023, with prices in the Adriatic country rising 10.9% in the quarter, on an annual basis.

Also posting a significant increase in house prices were Poland, up 9.3% and Bulgaria, up 9.2%, the Eurostat data showed.

Data was not available for all EU member states, however of the 26 for which data was available, ten showed an annual decrease in the quarter, while 16 showed an increase.

The biggest falls were seen in Luxembourg (-13.6%), Germany (-10.2%), and Finland (-7.0%).

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, meanwhile, the highest increases were recorded in Poland (+4.5%), Romania (+3.4%) and Denmark (+3.1%), while the biggest declines were seen in Luxembourg (-6.3%), Finland (-2.7%) and Germany (-1.4%).

House prices across Europe

During the third quarter of 2023, the euro area saw a 2.1% decrease in house prices, the data showed, while the overall European Union saw a 1.0% decrease, in comparison to the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Compared with the second quarter of 2023, house prices rose by 0.3% in the euro area and by 0.8% in the EU in the third quarter of 2023.

In the second quarter of 2023, house prices experienced a decline of 1.5% in the euro area and 0.9% in the EU.

The House Price Index (HPI) gauges the fluctuations in the prices of all residential properties acquired by households, including flats, detached houses, terraced houses, etc. This encompasses both newly constructed and pre-existing properties, regardless of their ultimate purpose and irrespective of their previous owners.