Over ten years, house prices in Portugal rose 60.8% relative to incomes, the most in the EU. The EU average was 6.8%
Between 2015 and 2025, house prices in Portugal rose much faster than incomes, more than in any other EU country. On 9 November the EU statistics office Eurostat published figures showing how the ratio of house prices to household income per head changed over those ten years: in Portugal it rose by 60.8%. In other words, your income now buys noticeably less housing than it did ten years ago (Eurostat).
Portugal is far ahead of the rest. The Netherlands comes second, at 34.3%, followed by Hungary (26.5%), Czechia (25.8%) and Spain (24.5%). Across the EU as a whole, house prices rose by 6.8% relative to incomes. In 17 countries prices outpaced incomes, and in ten it was the other way round: in Romania the ratio fell by 42.8%, in Finland by 25.2% and in Bulgaria by 16.2%.
Eurostat points out that the figure compares how prices and incomes have changed; it is not a ranking of the countries where housing is most expensive. Nor does it tell you how many years it takes to save for a flat or how much a mortgage costs.
Prices are still rising: in October, the average asking price for homes was €3,249 per square metre, 7.5% more than a year earlier (see our news story). For prices by city, see our page How much housing costs in Portugal, and for what you need to buy a home, see our guide How to buy a home in Portugal.
