Filenews 10 January 2026 - by Theano Thiopoulou
The housing crisis in Europe, with its continuous price increases, has become entrenched, making it not only difficult to find housing but also very expensive. Cypriots who want to study abroad know this very well and every year they are faced with the expensive rents that exist in university cities in Europe, because both buying and renting has become a very expensive affair.
The data announced by Eurostat and the Statistical Service give an optimistic message, as house prices in Cyprus during the third quarter of 2025 recorded a marginal annual increase of 0.1%, compared to the corresponding quarter of 2024, according to a preliminary estimate by the Statistical Service. It is the lowest increase recorded among European countries, followed by Sweden with an increase of 0.5%.
Let's see what is happening in the rest of Europe based on Eurostat data.
As a general estimate, house prices in Europe continue to rise, albeit at different rates per country, creating a housing crisis, especially for young people, due to low supply and high construction costs.
The data are revealing about where prices are heading. Eurostat reports that among the EU countries for which data are available, one country experienced an annual decrease in house prices in the third quarter of 2025 and 25 countries experienced an annual increase. The decline was recorded in Finland (-3.1%), while the largest increases were recorded in Hungary (+21.1%), Portugal (+17.7%) and Bulgaria (+15.4%).
In the rest of the countries, in order to have a more comprehensive picture, the price changes in the third quarter of 2025 on an annual basis are: Belgium 3.7%, Bulgaria 15.4%, Czech Republic 10.8%, Denmark 6.8%, Germany 3.3%, Estonia 5.2%, Ireland 7.5%, Greece (no data available), Spain 12.8%, France 0.7%, Croatia 13.8%, Italy 3.8%, Cyprus 0.1%, Latvia 8.4%, Lithuania 10.8%, Luxembourg 1.2%, Hungary 21.1%, Malta 5.7%, Netherlands 7.7%, Austria 2.7%, Poland 4%, Portugal 17.7%, Romania 6.6%, Slovenia 2.7%, Slovakia 13.4%, Finland -3.1%, Sweden 0.5%.
Eurostat in its analysis notes that between 2016 and 2021 house prices increased every year more than inflation in at least 24 of the 27 EU countries. In 2022 and 2023, house prices increased more than inflation in 18 and 6 EU countries, respectively. In 2024, house prices increased less than inflation in 7 EU countries (Germany, France, Luxembourg, Austria, Romania, Finland and Sweden) and increased more than inflation in all other EU countries, including Cyprus.
What happened to rents
From 2015 to the third quarter of 2025, rents in the EU increased by 21.1% and house prices by 63.6%. In the EU, in the third quarter of 2025, compared to the same period in 2024, rents increased by 3.1% and house prices increased by 5.5%.
In the third quarter of 2025, rents in the EU increased by 0.9% and house prices increased by 1.6% compared to the second quarter of 2025. In terms of national data, when comparing the third quarter of 2025 with 2015, house prices increased more than rents in 25 of the 26 EU countries for which data are available.
During this period, house prices more than tripled in Hungary (+275%) and have more than doubled in 11 countries, with the largest increases observed in Portugal (+169%), Lithuania (+162%) and Bulgaria (+156%).
In Cyprus the increase was 46.9%. Finland was the only country where house prices fell during this period (-2%). Over the same period, rents increased in all 27 EU countries, with the highest increases recorded in Hungary (+107%), Lithuania (+85%) and Slovenia (+76%). In Cyprus the increase was 29.4%.
