Cyprus has biggest EU rise in house sales

Last year housing transactions in Cyprus increased by 27.4% compared to 2021, the largest rise recorded in the 16 EU countries for which data is available.

According to Eurostat, the number of housing transactions, compared with 2021, decreased in most EU countries.

This decline came after an increase in nearly every country in 2021 from 2020.

The largest decreases in the number of transactions in 2022 were recorded in Denmark (-31.6%), Finland (-16.6%), the Netherlands (-16.2%) and Luxembourg (-15.1%).

And the highest volumes were registered in Cyprus (+27.4%), Ireland (+7.7%) and Spain (+6.0%).

Since COVID-19 started, the housing market has been volatile.

In COVID-riddled 2020, there was a general drop in housing transactions due to lockdown measures, with only four (Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Austria) registering an increase in sales.

This was followed by a period of growth in 2021, with sales going up in the 16 EU countries covered, except for the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

The market was so hot in 2021 that 11 out of 16 countries with available data registered annual rates of change above 10%, with the highest increases recorded in Spain (+39.3%) and Bulgaria (+39.0%).