House prices rose 10% in Q1. Portugal had the fifth largest increase in the Eurozone

In the first quarter, houses became more expensive, on average 5% in the Eurozone and 5.5% in the European Union (EU). But some member states have surpassed these rises, Eurostat shows. Portugal is one such case, where house prices rose over 10% between January and March, representing the fifth-highest rise in the entire European zone.

This 5% rise in prices in the Eurozone represents “the biggest annual increase since the second quarter of 2007,” says the EU’s Statistics Office, adding that these figures “were not affected by the containment measures to Covid-19 that the member states began to introduce” during the first three months of the year. Comparing the last quarter of 2019, the increase was 0.9% in the Eurozone and 1.2% in the EU.

But there were several member states with increases well above average. At the top is Luxembourg, with a 14% increase in house prices, ahead of Slovakia (13.1%), Estonia (11.5%) and Poland (11.5%). But Portugal is in the top 5, with an increase of 10.3%. Analysing all countries, Hungary was the only one to see a negative evolution, with prices falling 1.2%.

However, if we analyse the evolution of this indicator compared to the last quarter of the previous year, Portugal is in the first position. It was in the Portuguese territory that house prices rose the most compared to the end of last year: 4.9%. Estonia (4.8%) and Slovakia (4%) are behind. Prices fell in Malta (-4.3%), Hungary (-1.1%), Ireland (-0.8%) and Belgium (-0.1%), according to Eurostat.