Home sales climbed in 17 of 20 European countries last year as falling borrowing costs helped revive buyer demand. France passed one million transactions, while Slovenia posted the steepest percentage gain of any market on the continent.
Europe’s housing market found its footing again in 2025, even as property prices kept rising across most of the region. Belgium and Austria were among the countries where annual sales grew by more than 20%.
Property remains the primary source of household wealth in the eurozone, according to the European Central Bank. Most buyers purchase a home to live in, though others treat it as an investment.
Eurostat figures reveal wide gaps in performance, with annual sales changes stretching from a 4.1% fall in Croatia to a 29.9% jump in Slovenia.
Residential transactions are shaped mainly by mortgage affordability, interest rates, household incomes, employment, consumer confidence and housing supply, said Mikk Kalmet, a real estate advisor at Global Property Guide, speaking to Euronews Business.
Where sales grew fastest
Lithuania led the strong performers at 22.8%, followed by Austria at 21.4% and Belgium at 20.2%, all clearing the 20% mark.
Double-digit annual increases also appeared in Luxembourg at 18.6%, Hungary at 17.3%, the Netherlands at 13.9%, Denmark at 12.7%, France at 11.2% and Portugal at 10.5%. Latvia at 9.2%, Finland at 9% and Norway at 8.3% came close to 10%.
Among Europe’s largest economies, figures were available only for Spain and France. Spanish home sales rose 5.4%.
France staged one of the sharpest reversals, swinging from a decline in 2024 to growth in 2025, Kalmet noted, while Spain held onto positive growth in both years, a sign of relatively resilient demand.
Croatia bucks the trend
Croatia was not alone in seeing sales slip. Bulgaria and Poland also recorded small declines, of 2.5% and 1.1% respectively. In 2024, sales fell in six countries, compared with just three in 2025.
Kalmet said market activity strengthened across much of the EU last year, pointing to a broad recovery likely driven by better financing conditions and the release of demand that had been put off during the period of higher interest rates.
Croatia, a popular tourist and holiday destination, is seeing house prices and rents rise sharply. Prices climbed 14.3% between the first quarters of 2025 and 2026, the fourth-highest increase in Europe, while rents surged 39.1% over the same period, the strongest rent growth on the continent. Even so, the number of home sales there fell for a fourth straight year.
Croatia was the only country to record declines in both years, Kalmet said, showing that domestic factors continued to shape its market despite the wider European upturn.
More than a million homes sold in France
Among the 14 countries with available data, France ranked first, with over one million homes sold in 2025. French house prices, by contrast, edged up just 0.1% between the first quarters of 2025 and 2026.
In the Netherlands, 265,000 homes changed hands. Hungary, Belgium, Portugal and Norway each recorded between 130,000 and 160,000 sales. Slovenia, despite its top percentage gain, logged the lowest volume at 11,000 sales.
Kalmet noted that several smaller markets, including Slovenia, Lithuania, Belgium and Hungary, saw especially strong increases, though percentage changes tend to look larger in smaller markets.
Costly construction still limits supply
The recovery gathered pace as Euribor and other bank interest rates stabilised, according to Kalmet. Buyers who had held back during the uncertain period gained more predictability from late 2024 onwards. He added that high construction costs and limited building activity continued to restrict the supply of new homes.
