What EU country reported the biggest increase in house prices in the fourth quarter of 2024?

Bulgaria reported a 18.3% increase in house prices in the fourth quarter of 2024, the biggest annual increase in the European Union, new data from Eurostat has found.

Other countries to report a notable annual increase in house prices included Hungary (+13.0%), Portugal (+11.6%), Spain (+11.4%), the Netherlands (+10.8%) and Poland (+10.4%).

At the other end of the spectrum, two EU countries reported a decline in house prices in the fourth quarter – France and Finland (both -1.9%).

House prices in the EU

Compared with the previous year, house prices rose by 4.9% in the EU, and by 4.2% in the euro area, in the fourth quarter of 2024.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, meanwhile, house prices were up 0.8% in the EU and 0.6% in the euro area. The biggest quarter-on-quarter house price increases were observed in Slovakia (+3.6%), Slovenia (+3.1%) and Portugal (+3.0%), with the biggest declines registered in France (-1.0%), Cyprus (-1.0%) and Estonia (-0.7%).

‘More than tripled’

Compared with 2010, house prices have now more than tripled in Hungary (+234%) and Estonia (+228%) and have more than doubled in Lithuania (+187%), Latvia (+153%), Czechia (+142%), Portugal (+120%), Bulgaria (+115%), Austria (+112%) and Luxembourg (+105%), Eurostat‘s data showed.

Elsewhere, in the fourth quarter, rents increased by 3.2% on average across the European Union, compared with the fourth quarter of 2023. Read more here and here.

Annual House Price Changes by EU Member State, Q4 2024 (%)