Housing price statistics - House Price Index

“Housing price statistics – House Price Index” is an article produced by Eurostat and published by the European Commission’s Eurostat Statistics Explained service. It compiles and interprets quarterly House Price Index (HPI) data for the euro area and the European Union, alongside selected national results, and summarises how the indicator is built and used in policy and market analysis.

The HPI tracks price changes for dwellings purchased by households (including flats, detached and terraced houses), covering both newly built and existing homes. It aims to reflect market prices from actual transactions and applies quality adjustment to account for the heterogeneity of housing. The index includes the land component (gross acquisition concept) and covers purchases regardless of the buyer’s final use, so homes bought for investment are included, while non‑market transactions are excluded; self-built dwellings are generally outside scope except in limited turnkey cases.

In the second quarter of 2025, house prices increased by 5.1% in the euro area and by 5.4% in the EU compared with the same quarter of 2024. On a quarter‑on‑quarter basis (Q2 2025 vs Q1 2025), house prices rose by 1.6% in the EU, while rents increased by 0.7% over the same quarter. These figures are presented as part of a longer time series (2010 onwards) to show cycles and turning points across the past decade and a half.

The article highlights substantial cross-country variation in annual house price changes in Q2 2025. Finland was the only country reported with an annual decrease (‑1.3%), while the highest annual increases were recorded in Portugal (+17.2%), Bulgaria (+15.5%) and Hungary (+15.1%). Quarter‑on‑quarter, prices fell in France (‑0.2%) and Belgium (‑0.1%), while the largest quarterly increases were observed in Portugal (+4.7%), Luxembourg (+4.5%) and Croatia (+4.4%).

From 2010 to Q2 2025, EU house prices rose by 60.5% while rents increased by 28.8%, indicating a widening gap between purchase prices and rental costs over time. Over the same 2010–2025 Q2 comparison, house prices more than tripled in Hungary (+277%), Estonia (+250%) and Lithuania (+202%) and more than doubled in nine other countries (including Latvia +162%, Czechia +155% and Portugal +141%). Italy was noted as the only country with an overall decrease in house prices (‑1%) across that period, while rents increased in 26 Member States and decreased in Greece (‑9%).

A key analytical use described is the deflated (real) HPI, calculated by dividing nominal house prices by an inflation measure such as the HICP or national accounts deflators. This helps distinguish nominal growth from inflation-adjusted changes. For the euro area, the article reports that between 2016 and 2021 house prices increased by 2.9% to 5.4% above inflation annually; in 2022 they rose only slightly above inflation (+0.6%). In 2023, in a high‑inflation context, annual deflated house prices declined by 7.0%, followed by a further 0.4% decrease in 2024. For 2024, house prices increased less than inflation in seven EU countries (Germany, France, Luxembourg, Austria, Romania, Finland and Sweden) and more than inflation in the remaining Member States.

Euro area and EU HPIs are computed as weighted averages of national indices. The weights are based on GDP at market prices (expressed in purchasing power standards) and are updated using fourth‑quarter HPI values; for 2025 aggregates, weights are based on 2024 GDP and Q4 2024 HPI. Eurostat also disseminates separate indices for newly built and existing dwellings, with weights expressed as parts per thousand of expenditure so that newly built plus existing equals 1,000 for total dwellings.

The compilation framework for the HPI and the related owner‑occupied housing price index is grounded in European legislation, notably Regulation (EU) 2016/792 and its implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1470. The article emphasises that the HPI is designed as an independent price index for dwellings transacted in the market, and that it measures price developments for residential property itself rather than the full costs of ownership and maintenance, which are outside its scope.