In the second quarter of 2020, house prices, as measured by the Housing Price Index, increased by 5.0% in the euro area, by 5.2% in the EU, and decreased by 2.9% in Cyprus compared to the same quarter of the previous year, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union In the first quarter of 2020 house prices increased by 5.1%, 5.6%, and 1.1% respectively.
Compared to the first quarter of 2020, house prices increased by 1.7% in the euro area, 1.5% in the EU, and 0.3% in Cyprus in the second quarter of 2020.
Among the Member States for which data are available, the highest annual house price increases in the second quarter of 2020 were in Luxembourg (+ 13.3%), Poland (+ 10.9%), and Slovakia (+ 9,7%), while prices decreased in Hungary (-5.6%) and Cyprus (-2.9%). Compared to the previous quarter, the highest increases were recorded in Luxembourg (+ 4.4%), Italy (+ 3.1%) and Austria (+ 2.5%), while decreases were observed in Hungary (-7, 4%), Estonia (-5.8%), Latvia (-2.3%), Bulgaria (-1.1%) and Ireland (-0.1%). Data is not only available for Greece.
Simultaneously, between 2010 and the second quarter of 2011, house prices and rents in the EU-27 followed a similar course. The third quarter of 2011 very different: While rents rose steadily throughout the period to the second quarter of 2020, house prices fluctuated significantly.
After a sharp decline between the second quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2013, house prices remained more or less stable between 2013 and 2014. Subsequently, there was a rapid increase in early 2015, as when house prices increased much faster than rents.
From 2010 to the second quarter of 2020, rents increased by 14.2% and house prices by 25.0%.
Comparing the second quarter of 2020 with 2010, house prices rose more than rents in 16 EU Member States. House prices rose in 23 Member States and fell in four, with the highest increases in Estonia (+100, 5%), in Luxembourg (+ 85.8%), in Latvia (+ 77.3%), and Austria (+ 75.9%). Decreases were observed in Greece (-31.0%, annual estimate 2019 by the Bank of Greece), Italy (-13.2%), Spain (-5.6%) and Cyprus (-3.0%) .
For rents, the pattern was different. Comparing the second quarter of 2020 with 2010, prices increased in 25 EU Member States and decreased in two, with the highest increases in Estonia (+ 135.8%), Lithuania (+ 105.4%), and Ireland (+ 62.3%). Reductions were recorded in Greece (-25.2%, annual estimate 2019 by the Bank of Greece) and Cyprus (-4.8%).