House Prices Rose 18% in Hungary and Fell in Finland
Silver Data Lab Research Desk · Statistical analysis · Published on 05 July 2026
- Data source
- Eurostat
- Reference period
- 2025
- Last updated
- 05 July 2026
Key estimates
- House prices across the EU rose 5.5% on annual average in 2025.
- Hungary recorded 18.3% and Portugal 17.6% — more than three times the EU rate.
- Finland recorded −2.3%, the only Member State where house prices fell.
- France at 0.7% and Sweden at 1.0% were nearly flat.
- The spread between the fastest and slowest Member State was 20.6 percentage points in a single year.
One year, twenty points of difference
House price inflation is not a European phenomenon with national variations. In 2025 it was a set of national phenomena that happen to share a currency in most cases.
Across the EU, house prices rose 5.5% on annual average. Behind that figure Hungary recorded 18.3% and Finland −2.3%, a spread of 20.6 percentage points inside a single year.
Where housing got much more expensive
Hungary leads at 18.3%, followed by Portugal at 17.6%, Bulgaria at 14.6%, Croatia at 13.9% and Spain at 12.7%. Slovakia at 12.4% and Czechia at 10.4% complete the group above 10%.
Seven Member States recorded double-digit house price growth in one year. For a household not already on the housing ladder, a 15% annual increase moves the purchase price faster than almost any plausible increase in savings.
Portugal and Spain in that group are the ones with the widest external attention, and both combine strong price growth with substantial international demand for housing. This dataset records the prices and contains nothing about who is buying, so this study does not attribute the increases.
Where prices stalled or fell
Finland recorded −2.3%, the only Member State where house prices fell over the year. France recorded 0.7%, Sweden 1.0% and Luxembourg 1.6%.
Falling prices are not straightforwardly good news or bad. For a prospective buyer they improve affordability; for an existing owner they erode equity, and for a banking system with mortgage exposure they are a supervisory matter. This indicator measures the direction and says nothing about which of those effects dominates.
Why the aggregate is close to useless here
The EU figure of 5.5% describes very few Member States. Twelve are above 7% and eight below 4%; the countries near the aggregate are a minority of a distribution with substantial mass at both ends.
Aggregates work when a distribution is concentrated. On this indicator, in this year, it is not, and a European average of 5.5% would misdescribe both the Hungarian and the Finnish experience by a wide margin.
House price change, 2025
| Country | Annual rate of change (%) | Gap to EU averagepercentage points, derived |
|---|---|---|
| Hungary | 18.3 | +12.8 |
| Portugal | 17.6 | +12.1 |
| Bulgaria | 14.6 | +9.1 |
| European Unionaggregate | 5.5 | — |
| Sweden | 1.0 | −4.5 |
| France | 0.7 | −4.8 |
| Finland | -2.3 | −7.8 |
What these figures cannot tell you
- A rate of change, not a level
- This measures how prices moved in one year, not how expensive housing is. A country with high growth can remain cheap in absolute terms, and one with falling prices can remain unaffordable.
- Nominal, not adjusted for inflation
- The index is not deflated. In a year when consumer prices rose 2.5% across the EU, a nominal increase of 2.5% is no real increase at all, and the national comparison mixes countries with very different inflation rates.
- Quality adjustment is imperfect
- House price indices attempt to control for changes in the mix and quality of properties sold. Methods differ between Member States and no adjustment is complete, so comparisons between countries carry more uncertainty than the single decimal place suggests.
- National averages hide capitals
- House price movements in a capital city frequently diverge from the national figure. This indicator is national and cannot show that divergence.
Frequently asked questions
- How much did EU house prices rise in 2025?
- 5.5% on annual average across the European Union, in nominal terms. National rates ran from 18.3% in Hungary to −2.3% in Finland.
- Which EU country had the fastest house price growth?
- Hungary, at 18.3% in 2025, followed by Portugal at 17.6% and Bulgaria at 14.6%. Seven Member States recorded double-digit growth in a single year.
- Did house prices fall anywhere in the EU?
- In one Member State. Finland recorded −2.3% in 2025. France at 0.7% and Sweden at 1.0% were close to flat but still positive.
- Are these figures adjusted for inflation?
- No. The index is nominal. With EU consumer price inflation at 2.5% in the same year, a nominal increase below that represents a real fall in house prices.
Methodological note
The house price index is published by Eurostat as the annual average rate of change in prices of all residential property purchased by households, both newly built and existing.
Values are for 2025, covering 26 Member States at the extraction date. The rate is nominal: it is not adjusted for consumer price inflation, which averaged 2.5% across the EU in the same year according to the companion inflation study on this site.
The spread of 20.6 percentage points and the counts of Member States above 7% and below 4% are derived by Silver Data Lab from the published rates.
Source data
The underlying series can be inspected and re-downloaded from the Eurostat data browser. The filters below are the ones applied.
House price index — annual data
prc_hpi_a
- Filters applied:
- freq=A · purchase=TOTAL · unit=RCH_A_AVG · time=2025
- Extracted:
- 2026-08-11
- Source last updated:
- 2026-07-02
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