The 10 worst places in Europe to buy a home | World | News
The 10 worst places to buy a property in Europe have been revealed and it is not good news for France and Germany. According to the House Price Index, an indicator by Eurostat, eight countries in Europe reported falling house prices for the final three months of 2023.
The cost of homes within the eurozone fell by 1.1 percent during the last three months of 2023. However, within the EU overall, prices were slightly higher.
Countries in the eurozone include Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.
As per the data, house prices in Germany saw a drop of 7.1 percent while Finland saw a fall of 4.4 percent.
Similarly, house prices in France saw a drop of 2.7 percent, while Latvia’s prices slid 2.5 percent.
But one of the countries that witnessed the hardest hit is Luxembourg where the house prices slumped 14.4 percent.
The cost of homes within the eurozone fell by 1.1 percent during the last three month of 2023. However, within the EU overall, prices were slightly higher.
Economists noted that southern and eastern European countries experienced stronger economic growth recently, which boosted their housing markets.
Meanwhile, core countries like Germany and France faced stagnant or weak growth, affecting their housing markets negatively.
Ricardo Amaro at Oxford Economics told The Financial Times: “Recent underperformance of the German economy is adding to caution from actual and prospective buyers and the strong house price surge during the pandemic also left the German market vulnerable to a correction.”
Amaro said “supply dynamics” could help to explain the outperformance of some country’s housing markets, particularly in southern Europe “where new construction has been weak”.