In 2020, 70% of the EU population lived in a household owning their home, while the remaining 30% lived in rented housing. The highest shares of ownership were in Romania, where 96% of the population lived in their owned household, followed by Slovakia (92%), Hungary and Croatia (both 91%).

35 comments

  2. In all Member States, except for Germany, owning is most common.

    In Germany’s case, half of the population lived in a household owning their home and the other half in a rented home.

    The shares of homeownership were lowest also in Austria (55%) and Denmark (59%).

  4. It’s not necessarily a good thing to have a lot of home ownership amongst populations with low income. The cost of maintaining a house or an entire residential building can be way too high for the owners causing the country to have a lot of derelict buildings.

  5. >The highest shares of ownership were observed in Romania, where 96% of the population lived in a household that owned their home.

    One of the few positive consequences of communist rule.

  6. It’s interesting that Norway is such an outlier compared to other rich European countries…can someone from Norway explain why home ownership is so popular there and how do you manage to afford it?

  7. In the Netherlands the investors just buy up every house at full or a bit more which increase the house price and makes it really hard for starters or people wanting to buy a home even more difficult since they have to get a mortgage and the investors not

  8. Would be very interesting to see the ownership portion split by whether the property is mortgaged or not.

  9. Slovakia that high? i don’t believe that for a second. maybe if they take living with parents as in owning their housing, otherwise that’s not correct at all.

  14. Interesting that in many Western European countries the home ownership rates are so low. Is it due to the laws which are very protective of the rights of people who rent, while there are lots of costs associated with being a homeowner? In general, I think if the rules and regulations are tilted very much towards renters, it might have a counterproductive effect of discouraging home ownership, which in turn increases wealth inequality. That should probably not be a goal of any government.

  19. Home ownership is becoming more difficult in Spain after the real estate liberalizations that we did under German pressure and the growing share of housing owned by big companies, vulture funds and foreign investors.

    I suppose that this was the goal.

  20. Just bought my apartment last year. Stunning COVID discount after record market gains. Home ownership is good and hopefully convinced people to care more about their community than renting does.

    The public projects are treated poorly because people don’t have a stake in them.

  21. HAVING A PAID HOUSE in a low wage country is the only thing that can make life bearable,as it is a constant thing in your life that you can always count on.

    I remember when in the 2008 crises Portugal had to ask for help and one of the “advices/exigence” off the ppl that borrow the money to the country was to get ppl to rent more and be more mobile in search of work instead of owning a house that should be made harder in their mind

    Yes ppl getting mobile in a country with only 1000km across and 2 major population clusters concentrated near those supposed jobs would make a lot of difference /s

    That and reducing even further our minimum wage that was around 500 euros if I recall yes that would help a lot of poor ppl /s

    Thing is ,it’s cheaper to buy than to rent and at least buying you leave something for the next generation of your family!!

    Many more wealthy(not rich)ppl I know invested in housing even on old social housing areas to then rent and they are set for life and that’s fine at least they spread some off they wealth, unlike fiscal paradise big funds

  22. As a german: i am surprised it is ONLY 50% tenants and not more. Honestly expected more.

    Also, personally i think, renting is a bit more the culture here then owning. Owning a house is for when you have a certain age and living circumstances where it is not probably you have to move again.

    Neither my brother nor me were even looking for a own house when we left our parent apartment (because no own house either). And in hindsight: Why should i have? 15 years later, i am living in the 3rd different city (because of work) and my brother is living his second one now. Why should we have even tried to own a house which we then had to sell again? All the troubles…

  23. Remember this includes multi-generational households. Countries in which children move out later will have higher rates.

  26. We are head first into the future where most houses are owned by corporations and the majority of the population has no way of buying (prices too high, no construction due to regulations, house hoarders, etc) and has to lose a third of their salary to the corporations forever. We can look at Hong Kong to see how disastrous that is.
    I find that so obviously wrong economically and absolutely soul crushing for workers that have no security.
    It’s the new world order constructed by our elites, our children will own nothing

  28. Ah yes. Its so nice to be half Romanian half Hungarian, and seeing those very nice stats about ownership in those countries, whilst coming from such a poor and fucked up family that I am amongst those lucky few who inherited nothing, owns nothing, and will inherit nothing, even if my whole family would die out. Except debt. I would inherit debt.
    Life is good.

  30. Interesting how there’s an inverse correlation between per-capita GDP and home ownership. If you want to be a rich country, better have people renting their homes instead of owning.

  32. And here we have 19% average housing price rise last year. And 25% rise was just for house prices.

  33. I wonder how accurate the statistics are for Romania. In my experience, a huge number of people living in rented housing do not have a rental contract signed.

    Without a contract (and maybe a residence change, flotant) these renters will probably be counted as part of a household that owns their home.

  34. Homeowners are under attack, big money wants to turn everything into a renters market to destroy the most traditional way of transferring generational wealth.

    ​

    think back to 2008

  35. i can tell about Croatia. people were given a chance to buy apartments they lived in, houses were already private property…
    (lin Yugoslavia you were allowed to own a private business with 12 employees or to build your house if you wanted…
    each (state owned) company had “housing fund” and each employee was deducted a small amount.compamy would then buy 10, 15 or 55 newly built apartments and distribute them. as you, and your wife would get a child or 2 you’d apply and get a bigger apartment, suited for bigger family.
    in 91-92 those were being sold (again) to people who lived in them if they wanted to buy them.
    my parents just moved into new 85m² apartment in ’89 and the price was 23.000 DM with the opportunity of 33% discount if payed in cash (country needed weapons as war started and weapons embargo was implemented) – so it was possible to buy for 15.000 DM but not everyone had that kind of money and they were paying next 5 -20 years…

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