EU house price-to-income ratio rises 6.8% over a decade, Eurostat says
Eurostat says the ratio was higher in 2025 than in 2015, as home prices rose relative to household income across the EU.
Loading… Բեռնվում է…
Eurostat says the ratio was higher in 2025 than in 2015, as home prices rose relative to household income across the EU.
The EU house price-to-income ratio was 6.8% higher in 2025 than in 2015, meaning home prices rose relative to household income over the decade, Eurostat said on 9 November.
The ratio compares changes in house prices with changes in household income per person, using a base year. The figure is not an annual house-price increase or a measure of house-price growth alone.
The ratio rose in 17 EU countries and fell in 10. Portugal had the largest increase and Romania the largest decrease, Eurostat’s comparison shows.
| Country | Change |
|---|---|
| Portugal | +60.8% |
| Netherlands | +34.3% |
| Hungary | +26.5% |
| Czechia | +25.8% |
| Spain | +24.5% |
| Romania | -42.8% |
| Finland | -25.2% |
| Bulgaria | -16.2% |
These changes do not rank countries by how expensive homes are relative to income in absolute terms. Eurostat says the ratios describe one dimension of affordability; they do not capture mortgage financing costs or ongoing housing expenses.
The house-price index covers market purchases of new and existing homes by households, including the land, whatever their intended use or previous owner. It includes cash and mortgage purchases but excludes self-built homes. For the standardized ratio, Eurostat uses adjusted gross disposable household income per person (B7G under ESA 2010).
Eurostat says the annual average rose 4.3% from 2024, providing a benchmark for full-time-adjusted pay across the bloc.
A separate standardized ratio compares prices relative to income with their long-term average from 2000 to the latest available data, rather than with the 2015 base. Eurostat uses it as an additional indicator in the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure to help identify potential housing-market imbalances building up over time.
On that measure, the EU ratio peaked at 7.9% above its long-term average in 2007, before the global financial crisis, and fell to 6.4% below it in 2014. It then rose to 7.4% above the average in 2022. After falling in 2023 and 2024, it returned to 0.03% above the average in 2025.
Eurostat says common methods support comparisons between countries, although adjusting for differences in the quality of homes is an important issue. Eurostat considers house-price-index data fairly comparable over time, though method changes have caused some breaks in historical series. Where underlying data allowed, historical series were recalculated and revised. Some missing early observations in the standardized ratio were filled with estimates; backcast series are published after approval by the relevant national statistical institutes.
In future readings, the ratio will rise if home prices grow faster than income or fall more slowly. It will fall if prices rise more slowly than income or fall faster, and stay unchanged if both move at the same rate.
2 min
The surplus passed $1 trillion in the first 10 months, reaching the mark earlier than in 2025 as October exports grew faster than economists expected.
3 min
Eurostat estimates that expenditure rose 4.9% from 2024 before adjusting for inflation, reaching €5.18 trillion (about $5.8 trillion). The early figures cover national benefit schemes and are subject to revision.
2 min