House prices back to strong growth in CEE

Today we look at the house price developments in the EU and in the region. In the first quarter of 2025, house prices in the EU rose by 5.7%, while rents increased by 3.2% compared with the first quarter of 2024. Further, compared with the fourth quarter of 2024, house prices increased by 1.4% and rents by 0.9%. In the region (CEE7 excluding Serbia) house prices grew by 8.8% y/y on average in Q1 but within the region house prices growth was quite diversified. In Czechia, Croatia, Hungary and Slovakia growth dynamics was close to 10% or above at the beginning of 2025. In Poland, Romania and Slovenia it ranged between 3.2% (Slovenia) and 6.6% (Poland) growth. Looking from broader perspective, the house prices roughly doubled in Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Croatia and Czechia (house price index 2015=100 close to 200 or slightly above in 1Q2025). Only in Romania the overall price increase was lower, at ~ 60% in ten years. On the other hand, Hungary is an outlier as over last decade house prices more than tripled.