Rental prices also among highest in Europe
House prices in Portugal have increased at almost three times the rate of the rest of the European Union on average.
This is the stark headline today in Público, which explains that house prices all over the European Union rose again last year, after a slight drop the year before after almost a decade of uninterrupted growth.
The increases however are very different depending on countries, with Portugal showing a price index growth almost triple that of the average for the rest of countries within the bloc
The data was released by Eurostat today, showing that in 2024, the house price index increased by 3.3% in all 27 European Union countries. Considering only the eurozone countries (the 20 country’s that have adopted the euro as currency), the price increase was 2% in 2024.
In Portugal, as INE National Statistics Institute announced last month, house prices rose by 9.1% last year – an acceleration compared to the previous year and a rate of change that “is almost triple that of the European Union as a whole.
“Portugal was thus the country in the European Union with the 6th highest increase in house prices last year, only surpassed by Bulgaria, Croatia, Lithuania, Hungary and Poland”, says Público.
In the opposite direction, there were only five countries in the European Union where house prices fell last year, and in all cases falls already seen in 2023 were extended. The biggest correction is in Luxembourg, where prices fell by 5.2% last year, following the 9.1% drop already recorded in 2023.
But the biggest concern has been Germany, Europe’s largest economy, which is in recession. Last year, house prices fell by 1.6%, following the 8.5% drop seen in 2023. France also saw house prices fall by 3.7%, as did Finland (with a 3.5% decrease) and Austria (where the drop was just 0.2%).
Rents also rise
Accompanying the movement in house prices, rents also rose last year and, once again, Portugal “far outstripped the pace of growth seen in the rest of Europe”, says Público.
In 2024, according to Eurostat data, rents (considering all rents, both new and existing contracts) rose by 3.1% in the European Union and by 2.9% in the eurozone countries alone.
Increases were seen in almost all countries analysed – with the exception of Estonia, where rents fell by 0.9% last year.
The biggest increase, of over 12%, occurred in Hungary.
“Portugal, on the other hand, recorded a 7% rise in rents last year”, a figure above the European average and which means that Portugal is once again among the countries with the highest rent rises”, concludes the paper.
The fact also that higher increases were recorded in Hungary, Latvia, Malta and Romania slightly loses impact when one considers that even with these increases, the rents charged are far below those currently being charged in Portugal. ND
Source: Público
