Property Index 2021

Highlights:

1. Austria took a leading position as the most expensive country in our research in 2020 with a price tag of 4,457 EUR/sqm, only 36 EUR ahead of France with 4,421 EUR/sqm. Average price of over 4,000 EUR has been recorded in three other countries last year – Germany, United Kingdom and Israel.

2. The other side of price spectrum is dominated by Bulgaria with an average transaction price for a new dwelling of 578 EUR/sqm and Bosnia and Herzegovina - 881 EUR/sqm.

3. The least affordable own housing has been found in Serbia, where homebuyers needed an average of 15.2 gross annual salaries to purchase a 70 sqm dwelling. In Poland you need an average of 7,6 gross annual salaries. Ireland appears the most affordable with 3.1 average annual salaries to purchase a standardised dwelling.

4. The highest number of dwellings per 1,000 citizens had been observed in Poland (5.79). In terms of absolute values our country took the third place (after France and Germany). Moreover, Poland also took the third place, after France and Germany, in terms of the absolute number of initiated dwellings in 2020 and was in top 3 countries taking into account the number of initiated dwellings per 1000 citizens.

5. Paris remained at the position of the most expensive city to purchase a square meter of apartment in Europe ahead of Tel Aviv and Munich – average price was at the level of 12,900 EUR/sqm.

6. Rome is the only capital city that recorded a decrease in prices of new dwellings in 2020 (-3,11% y-o-y).

7. Among central European countries, Polish capital - Warsaw is the most expensive with 15.1 EUR/sqm/month rental price level. It is followed by Prague (11.5 EUR/sqm) and Bratislava (10.7 EUR/sqm). Paris is again the most expensive city in terms of monthly rent with average price of 28,6 EUR/sqm/month.