House prices and rents continued to rise across the European Union in the third quarter of 2025, but Hungary stood out as the most extreme case, according to the latest data published by Eurostat.
While EU-wide trends point to steady but moderate growth, Hungary’s housing market has followed a far more dramatic trajectory over the past decade. Between 2015 and the third quarter of 2025, house prices in the EU rose by an average of 63.6%, while rents increased by 21.1%.
In Hungary, house prices surged by a staggering 275% over the same period, meaning prices have more than tripled, by far the strongest increase among all EU member states. Hungary was followed at a distance by Portugal (+169%), Lithuania (+162%) and Bulgaria (+156%), all of which also recorded more than a doubling of house prices.
Across the EU, house prices increased by 5.5% year-on-year in 2025, while rents rose by 3.1% compared with the third quarter of 2024. On a quarterly basis, prices climbed by 1.6%, and rents by 0.9% compared with the second quarter of 2025.
Rents rising even faster in Hungary
Hungary also tops the EU ranking when it comes to rent increases. While rents rose in all 27 EU countries between 2015 and Q3 2025, the sharpest rise was recorded in Hungary, where rents climbed by 107%.
This places Hungary ahead of Lithuania (+85%), Slovenia (+76%), Poland (+75%) and Ireland (+74%). At EU level, the far more moderate average increase of just over 20% highlights how exceptional the Hungarian rental market has become.
Eurostat’s long-term data shows that house prices and rents moved broadly in tandem between 2010 and mid-2011, but their paths diverged sharply afterward. Rents have increased steadily, while house prices have become far more volatile, marked by periods of decline, stagnation, and rapid acceleration.
