House prices and rents: Where did they rise most in early 2026?
House prices and rents continued to rise across the EU in early 2026. This comes as households spent almost one fifth (18.9%) of their disposable income on housing in 2025. In some countries, that share...
House prices and rents continued to rise across the EU in early 2026. This comes as households spent almost one fifth (18.9%) of their disposable income on housing in 2025. In some countries, that share exceeded 30%.
In the first quarter of 2026, house prices in the EU rose by 5.1% and rents increased by 3.0% compared with a year earlier. Both outpaced the EU inflation rate of 2.3%, although the pace of growth varied widely across Europe, according to Eurostat.
So, which countries saw the largest annual rise in house prices and rents during this period?
Among the 28 European countries with available data, covering EU countries except Greece, plus Norway and Iceland, house prices rose in all but Finland, where they fell by 2% between the first quarters of 2025 and 2026.
Portugal saw the highest increase at 17.8%, followed closely by Bulgaria (14.8%), Slovakia (14.4%) and Croatia (14.3%).
Spain leads major EU economies**,** France barely moves
Among the EU's largest economies, Spain saw the highest increase at 12.8%, ranking fifth overall. In France, house prices rose by just 0.1%, the smallest increase among all countries apart from Finland, where prices fell.
In Italy (5.2%), the increase was just above the EU average, while Germany recorded a modest rise of 1.4%, only slightly higher than France.
House prices also rose by double digits in Lithuania (11.9%), Hungary (11.2%), Latvia (10.9%) and Czechia (10.1%).
Price growth remained strong in Slovenia (9.3%), Denmark (8.3%) and Romania (7.8%).
House price increases also exceeded the EU average in Ireland (6.8%), Poland (6%) and the Netherlands (5.2%).
Among the Nordic countries, Denmark's increase exceeded the EU average by more than three percentage points, while the others remained below it. Norway recorded a rise of 4.6%, Iceland 2.8% and Sweden 2.6%.
House prices rise far faster than inflation in some countries
Over this period, Romania recorded the highest inflation at 8.6%, followed by Iceland (4.7%) and Croatia (4.1%). In Romania and Iceland, house price increases were below inflation, making them the clearest outliers.
However, in the top five countries for house price rises — Portugal, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia and Spain — prices rose by around 10 percentage points above inflation.
Croatia leads Europe with nearly 40% rent growth
Rents in the EU rose by 3% between the first quarters of 2025 and 2026, significantly less than the 5.1% rise in house prices. Rents increased in all 30 countries, including EU members, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, though the rise was just 0.1% in Finland and Slovenia.
Croatia was a significant outlier, with rents rising 39.1% over this period. Mikk Kalmet, a real estate expert at Global Property, noted that rents in Croatia were showing strong growth, mainly because the country is an attractive short- and long-term rental destination, especially compared with more established markets such as Spain and the south of France.
Bulgaria (10.5%) was the only other country to record double-digit rent growth, followed by Iceland (8.4%), Romania (8.4%) and Greece (8.1%).
Among the EU's four largest economies, Italy (3.8%) was above the EU average, while Spain (2.5%), Germany (2.2%) and France (1.9%) were below.
In Latvia (6.7%), Czechia (6.2%), Slovakia (5.7%) and Portugal (5.1%), rent increases exceeded 5%.
How prices changed in just a few months — and why
Even over shorter periods, increases in house prices and rents were significant.
Compared with the fourth quarter of 2025, house prices increased by 1.2% and rents by 0.7% in the EU in the first quarter of 2026. Compared with the 2025 annual average, house prices in the EU increased by 2.9% and rents by 1.8% in the first quarter of 2026.
In Croatia, rents rose by almost 25% in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the 2025 annual average.
Commenting on house price rises in late 2025, Mikk Kalmet said high construction costs and a lack of new homes continued to limit supply, while stronger demand kept pushing prices higher.
