House prices and incomes in Europe: Where is it getting harder to buy a home?
House prices outpaced household incomes in 17 EU countries between 2015 and 2025. The gap widened most in Portugal, while Romania saw the biggest fall in house prices relative to incomes.
How far does a household’s income go when buying a home? In 17 EU countries, it bought less in 2025 than it did a decade earlier. Eurostat’s house price-to-income ratio, showing how household income is changing relative to house prices, rose by 6.8% across the EU over that period, though it fell in 10 member states.
Meanwhile, house prices in the EU rose by 62% in the ten years to the second quarter of 2026. In response to the housing crisis across the bloc, the European Commission presented its European Affordable Housing Plan in December 2025.
What is the house price-to-income ratio?
The house price-to-income ratio compares changes in house prices with changes in disposable household income per person. A rise means homes have become more expensive relative to incomes. A fall means they have become cheaper relative to incomes.
Each country’s figure shows how far its own ratio has moved over time. Mortgage costs also affect how much buyers can afford.
Portugal records the biggest rise
Between 2015 and 2025, Portugal recorded the largest increase in the house price-to-income ratio, at 60.8%. The Netherlands followed at 34.3%.
“The country experienced a touristic boom, and their golden visa program attracted foreign investors, so house prices grew partly because of foreign capital,” Mike Langen, senior housing economist at ABN AMRO, told Euronews Business.
He said a housing shortage and demand from investors were the main reasons for the rise in the Netherlands.
The ratio also jumped by more than 20% in Hungary (26.5%), Czechia (25.8%), Spain (24.5%) and Greece (22.5%).
This means homes became less affordable in these countries, as house prices rose faster than incomes.
Ronan Lyons, an associate professor of economics at Trinity College Dublin, said the countries at the top of the list combine strong demand in their main cities with supply that has struggled to keep up.
The ratio also rose by more than 10% in Slovenia (18.2%), Ireland (14.4%), Austria (13.6%), Slovakia (11.2%), Luxembourg (10.6%) and Lithuania (10.1%).
Romania records the biggest fall as renters face high costs
At the other end, Romania’s ratio fell by 42.8%, the biggest drop in the EU. House prices were substantially lower relative to household incomes in 2025 than in 2015.
The house price-to-income ratio also fell by 25.2% in Finland and 16.2% in Bulgaria. Cyprus (12%) and Italy (11.9%) also recorded double-digit declines.
Langen said strong income growth in Bulgaria and Romania after they joined the EU made homes cheaper relative to incomes.
Lyons pointed to the pressure on renters in Romania. In 2025, 56% of people paying market rent lived in households that spent more than 40% of their disposable income on housing, the highest share in the EU.
Among the EU’s four largest economies, the ratio fell by less than 6% in France and by 11.9% in Italy, while it rose by 1.6% in Germany. Spain recorded the largest increase among the four, at 24.5%.
Long-term comparison
Eurostat also compares each country’s 2025 ratio with its own average over the period from 2000 to 2025, using the earliest available year where data for 2000 are missing. Across the EU, the ratio was just 0.03% above its long-term average.
Portugal and Romania were again at opposite ends of the range. Portugal’s ratio was 37% above its long-term average, compared with a 60.8% rise from 2015. Romania’s ratio was 53% below its long-term average, compared with a 42.8% fall from 2015.
The two measures tell different stories in some countries. For example, Ireland’s ratio was 14.4% higher than in 2015 but 1.7% below its long-term average. According to Lyons, this is partly because the long-term average includes the housing bubble of the mid-2000s.
Lithuania shows a similar pattern, with a ratio 10.1% higher than in 2015 and 5.7% below its long-term average.
The Netherlands and Hungary both recorded double-digit rises between 2015 and 2025. In 2025, their ratios were 12% and 5.3% above their long-term averages, respectively. Bulgaria’s ratio was 36% below its long-term average and 16.2% below its 2015 level.
Does the starting year matter?
“The reference period (2015) showed a nearly historic low in price-to-income ratios. This means we are comparing to one of the cheapest periods in the last 20 years,” Langen said. With 2005 as the starting point, the increase would be much smaller, he added.
Langen also noted that mortgage costs matter, as few people buy homes in cash. The European Central Bank’s deposit rate is 2.5%, compared with minus 0.3% at the end of 2015.
“Both measures are about change: change since 2015, or distance from a 25-year average. Neither tells us how affordable housing is today,” Lyons said. He underlined that a fall does not make a market affordable.
Lyons drew attention to another point. “The countries ‘improving’ in the Eurostat figures do not always look good,” he said. He noted that tenants in Finland, where the ratio fell by a quarter, spend about 32% of their income on rent, the highest in the EU, according to Eurostat’s survey on income and living conditions.
