Eurostat has released new data on the prices of buying and renting housing in the European Union in the third quarter of 2023.
Based on the agency's report, the cost of real estate in Cyprus fell by 2% during the period under review, while rents rose by 6.5%.
Overall, both property values and rents in the EU rose by 0.8% in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the second quarter of 2023. On a year-on-year basis, EU house prices fell by 1% and rents rose by 3%. Comparing the third quarter of 2023 with 2010, house prices rose more than rents in 18 of the 27 EU countries.
Property values increased the most in Estonia (+210%), Hungary (+185%), Lithuania (+158%), Latvia (+141%), Austria (+123%), Czech Republic (+122%), Luxembourg (+107%).
A decrease was observed in Greece (-14%), Italy (-8%), and Cyprus (-2%). Rents increased in 26 EU countries, with the largest increases in Estonia (+218%), Lithuania (+170%) and Ireland (+100%). The only decrease in rental prices was recorded in Greece (-20%).
Eurostat noted that house prices and rents in the EU followed a comparable growth trajectory between 2010 and the second quarter of 2011. After that quarter, house prices and rents developed differently. While rents rose steadily throughout this period until the second quarter of 2023, house prices fluctuated significantly.
After a sharp decline in the second quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2013, apartment and house prices remained more or less stable from 2013 to 2014. A rapid increase followed in early 2015, and until the third quarter of 2022, house prices increased faster than rents. Starting in the fourth quarter of 2022, home prices fell for two consecutive quarters before rising again in the second and third quarters of 2023. From 2010 through the third quarter of 2023, home prices rose 48%t and rents rose 22%t.