House prices rose by 9.2% in the European Union and 8.8% in the eurozone in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, while rents increased by 1.2% in this period in the EU.

According to data released by Eurostat, this is the largest annual increase for the euro area since 2005, when housing prices began to be collected, and since the second quarter of 2007 for the EU.

The body also points out that in the quarter-on-quarter change, i.e. compared to the second quarter of last year, house prices increased by 3.3% in the euro zone and 3.1% in the EU in the third quarter of 2021.

Portugal saw a 9.9% year-on-year increase in house prices in Q3 2021 and a 3.6% increase compared to the previous quarter last year.

Still regarding member states, all of those with available data showed an annual increase in house prices in the third quarter of 2021, and for half of them this increase exceeded 10%.

The largest increases across countries were in the Czech Republic (+22%), Lithuania (+18.9%), Estonia (+17.3%) and the Netherlands (+16.8 %), while the most restrained increases were in Cyprus (+2.2%) and Italy and Spain (+4.2% each).

Also today, Eurostat reports that rental prices rose by 1.2% in the EU in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the same period a year earlier, a "steady increase" in recent months.

Making a comparison between the new data, for the third quarter of 2021, and the year 2010, Eurostat points out that "housing prices and rents in the EU have had similar changes, but since the second quarter of 2011, these paths have diverged significantly."

"Although rents have increased steadily over the period to the third quarter of 2021, house prices have fluctuated considerably," he points out.

Specifically, and "after a sharp decline between the second quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2013, house prices remained more or less stable between 2013 and 2014," and then "there was a rapid increase in early 2015, since when house prices have increased at a much faster rate than rents."

However, in this decade, from 2010 to the third quarter of 2021, rents have increased by 16% and house prices by 39%, says Eurostat.