Record house price rises in eurozone, EU in Q2

In the second quarter of the year, house prices had record year-on-year increases of 6.8% in the euro area and 7.3% in the European Union (EU), Eurostat reported on Thursday.

According to the European statistics office, this is the highest year-on-year increase since the fourth quarter of 2006 in the euro area and in the EU since the third quarter of 2007.

Compared to the first quarter of the year, between April and June house prices rose by 2.6% in the euro area and 2.7% in the EU.

In 11 member states, house prices rose by more than 10% year-on-year, with Estonia (16.1%), Denmark (15.6%) and the Czech Republic (14.5%) recording the largest increases and Cyprus having the only decline (-4.9%).

In the quarterly variation, house prices rose in all 27 member states, with the main increases being seen in Latvia (6.7%), Slovenia (4.5%) and Austria (4.2%).

In Portugal, the indicator rose by 6.6% year-on-year and 2.2% quarter-on-quarter.