Housing in the EU is getting more expensive faster than incomes: in 17 countries buying a home has become harder than ten years ago

Housing affordability: the overall EU picture

How far does a household's income stretch when buying a home? According to Eurostat, in 17 EU countries in 2025 it went less far than ten years earlier. The house price-to-income ratio — an indicator of how house prices change relative to disposable income per capita — rose across the EU as a whole by 6.8% over this period, although it fell in ten member states. An increase in the ratio means housing has become more expensive relative to incomes; a decrease means it has become cheaper. Meanwhile, house prices in the EU themselves rose by 62% over the ten years to the second quarter of 2026. Against the backdrop of the housing crisis in the bloc, the European Commission presented the European Affordable Housing Plan in December 2025. Euronews reports.

Where affordability deteriorated the most

Portugal recorded the largest increase in the price-to-income ratio between 2015 and 2025 — 60.8%, followed by the Netherlands (34.3%). ABN AMRO senior housing economist Mike Langen explained the Portuguese surge by the tourism boom and the 'golden visa' programme that attracted foreign investors: prices rose partly because of foreign capital. In the Netherlands, he said, the main causes are the housing shortage and investor demand. The ratio also rose by more than 20% in Hungary (26.5%), Czechia (25.8%), Spain (24.5%) and Greece (22.5%); it also climbed above 10% in Slovenia (18.2%), Ireland (14.4%), Austria (13.6%), Slovakia (11.2%), Luxembourg (10.6%) and Lithuania (10.1%). Ronan Lyons, associate professor of economics at Trinity College Dublin, noted that countries at the top of the list combine strong demand in large cities with supply that fails to keep pace. Among the EU's four largest economies, the ratio fell by less than 6% in France and by 11.9% in Italy, rose by 1.6% in Germany, and increased the most in Spain — by 24.5%.

Romania — the outlier, but with caveats

At the other end is Romania, where the ratio fell by 42.8%, the largest drop in the EU: in 2025 housing was noticeably cheaper relative to incomes than in 2015. The ratio also declined in Finland (−25.2%), Bulgaria (−16.2%), Cyprus (−12%) and Italy (−11.9%). Langen linked the decline in Bulgaria and Romania to strong income growth after these countries joined the EU. However, Lyons drew attention to the pressure on renters: in 2025, 56% of Romanians paying market rent lived in households spending more than 40% of disposable income on housing — the highest share in the EU. 'Countries that are

Why the figures should be read with caution

Eurostat also compares the 2025 figure with each country's average over 2000–2025. For the EU as a whole, it is only 0.03% above the long-term average. Portugal is again at one end of the range — 37% above the average, Romania 53% below. In some countries the two measures give different pictures: in Ireland the ratio is 14.4% above the 2015 level but 1.7% below the long-term average — according to Lyons, partly because the average includes the mid-2000s housing bubble; a similar situation exists in Lithuania (−5.7% versus the average). Langen added that the choice of starting point matters: 2015 was close to a historic low for the ratio, meaning the comparison is with one of the cheapest periods in 20 years; starting from 2005, the increase would have been noticeably smaller. He also pointed to the cost of mortgages: the ECB deposit rate is now 2.5% versus −0.3% at the end of 2015. 'Both measures speak to change: the change since 2015 or the deviation from the 25-year average. Neither shows how affordable housing is today,' Lyons concluded, stressing that a falling ratio does not make the market affordable.