Shortly after the UK posted figures suggesting the UK housing boom is cooling, data released on Thursday showed that house prices in the EU rose at the fastest rate in 14 years for the first three months of this year.
House prices in the European Union increased by 6.1% in the first quarter of this year from the same period last year, their biggest increase since 2007.
Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, also reported on Thursday that The House Price Index for countries in the EU area increased by 5.8% in the first three months from the same time a year before. Q1’s growth is the largest increase since the fourth quarter of 2006.
On a quarterly basis, house prices increased by 1.3% in the euro area and 1.7% in the EU in the first quarter of 2021 compared with the final quarter of 2020.
Luxembourg Leads the Way
Luxembourg led the way with the largest increase among EU countries at 17% higher than a year before. Denmark recorded the second-highest increase at 15%, followed by Lithuania and the Czech Republic at 12% and the Netherlands at just over 11%. Cyprus was the only country where prices fell down -5.8% from the same time a year before.
Germany reported the fastest increase in prices among the EU’s major economies at 9.4%. House prices have risen sharply over recent months in most of the world’s top economies, including the UK and the US. The unprecedented stimulus measures introduced by governments to combat the economic impact of the pandemic helped provided a massive boost to the housing market with interest rates at record lows.
As stimulus measures are eased, there are growing concerns that the EU housing market will cool too.
