The percentage of households in Greece that live in privately owned homes rather than rent exceeds the European Union (EU) average, even if only by a small margin, according to Eurostat research data.
The survey records a rate of privately owned homes of 72.8% in Greece compared to 69% in the EU, with data from 2022.
On the other hand, the majority of families in Greece live in an apartment building, while those living in a single-family house are below average (41.3% compared to 52% in the EU).
Furthermore, the houses that Greek families live in are smaller than in most Member States, with an average of 1.3 rooms per dwelling. Croatia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia are the only countries where the houses are even smaller.
At the same time, despite the small size of the houses in the country, Greece is in the first positions of the member states with the most people per dwelling (2.6 people), while in the EU it is 2.3 people. Greece is actually in fifth place.
In addition to being small, Greek homes are largely cold, with 18.7% compared to the EU average of 9.3%. 12.5% of Greek homes with leaks and damage on ceilings, windows, installations, etc.
The highest percentages of households that might not keep their homes sufficiently warm were in Bulgaria (22.5%), and Cyprus (19.2%).
Rent developments and housing costs between 2010-2022
On the other hand, Greece leads in the category regarding the evolution of rents. And this is because between 2010 and 2022 there was a steady increase in rents in the EU – a total of 18% over the entire period, with an increase in all Member States except Greece (-25%). The biggest increases were recorded in Estonia (+210%), Lithuania (+144%) and Ireland (+84%). In Cyprus the increase was only +0.2%.
This, of course, is also helped by the fact that Greece is among the countries with the lowest inflation rates in the period in question. In the EU between 2010 and 2022 inflation was 28%. During this period, annual inflation was clearly higher in 2022 at 9.2%. There was inflation in all Member States over the period 2010-2022, with the highest rates in Estonia (56%), Hungary (53%), Lithuania (49%) and Romania (47%). The lowest price increases were observed in Greece (12%), Cyprus and Ireland (both 16%).
The difference in house prices is large, looking at the evolution between 2010 and 2022 with Greece having the biggest decrease (from 8% down to 30% below the EU average) and Cyprus (from 8% down to 23% below). This was also contributed by the fact that Greece was the only member state that recorded a decrease in producer prices in construction (-1%), at a time when the increase in the EU between 2010 and 2022 reached 40%.
It should be noted, however, that with house prices and rents rising, housing costs are a significant burden, measured by the percentage of the population living in a household where total housing costs account for more than 40% of disposable income.
Thus, the highest urban housing cost burden rates were observed in Greece (27.3%) and Denmark (22.5%) and the lowest in Slovakia (2.3%) and Croatia (2.6%) . In rural areas they were the highest in Greece (24.2%) and Bulgaria (18.1%) and the lowest in Malta (0.2%) and Cyprus (0.5%).
Finally, on average in the EU in 2022, 19.6% of disposable income was devoted to housing costs. This varied between Member States, with the highest rates once more in Greece (34.2%), Denmark (25.4%) and Germany (24.5%).
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