Estonia first in Europe for house price rises since 2010, as CEE dominates top ten list

House prices have more than doubled in Estonia and Hungary over the last decade, according to a Eurostat survey that puts seven CEE countries in the top ten of the European Union member states.

The average cost of a home in the EU-27 rose 34% from 2010 to the second quarter of 2021. The highest rises were in Estonia, where prices were up 133%, Luxembourg (111%) and Hungary (109%). The other CEE countries that made it into Eurostat’s top ten were Latvia, Austria, Lithuania, Czechia and Slovakia. In all, 23 EU countries saw house price rises while 4 suffered declines, according to the EU’s official statistics office.

While rents have increased steadily in the EU over the last decade, house prices have fluctuated. After a sharp decline in the cost of buying a home from mid-2011 until early 2013, prices remained relatively stable until rapid rises began in early 2015. Since then house prices have increased much more quickly than rents, Eurostat found.