Cyprus bucks EU trend for rising rents

Cyprus and Greece are the only two EU countries where the cost of renting a flat or a house has decreased over the past decade, according to the latest data released by Eurostat.

Rents decreased in only two countries between 2010 and 2021: Greece (-25%) and Cyprus (-3%).

The highest rises were recorded in Estonia (142%), Lithuania (109%) and Ireland (66%).

Cyprus has also seen the third largest reduction in house values overall compared to 2010, as prices decreased by 8%.

House prices decreased in four countries: Greece (-28%), Italy (-13%), Cyprus (-8%) and Spain (-3%).

The highest rises were recorded in Estonia (133%), Luxembourg (111%) and Hungary (109%).

In its analysis of the data, Eurostat points out that between 2010 and Q2 2011, house prices and rents in the EU followed similar paths, but since Q2 2011, those paths have diverged significantly.

After a sharp decline between Q2 2011 and Q1 2013, house prices remained more or less stable between 2013 and 2014.

Then, there was a rapid rise in early 2015, when house prices have increased faster than rents.

From 2010 to Q2 2021, house prices jumped by 34%, and rents increased by 16%.

Rents and house prices in the EU continued their steady increase in Q2 2021, going up by 1.3% and 7.3%, respectively, compared to Q2 2020.

More specifically, while rents increased steadily throughout the period up to Q2 2021, house prices have fluctuated considerably.

Finally, when comparing Q2 2021 with 2010, house prices increased more than rents in 18 EU Member States.