Portugal’s housing prices rose 19.7% year over year in Q1 2026 as Eurostat’s transaction-based data showed sharp gains across several of Europe’s largest markets. Buyers in the hottest markets faced faster price moves than sellers did a year earlier, while Germany and France still traded below earlier highs.
19.7% was the biggest increase in the 19 largest countries of the European Union and the European Economic Area in the Q1 2026 comparison, with Bulgaria at 16.3%, Slovakia at 15.2%, and Hungary and Spain both at 13.5%. The data track closed sales, not asking levels, so the numbers reflect deals that actually cleared rather than advertised listings.
Portugal Leads the 19-Market Group
19.7% in Portugal came on top of gains that also reached 16.3% in Bulgaria, 15.2% in Slovakia, and 13.5% in both Hungary and Spain. For households trying to buy into those markets, the pace of change left little room for bargaining between one quarter and the next.
2015 equals 100 in the index used to compare the 19 markets, which lets the Q1 2026 readings show how far each country has moved relative to its own mid-decade baseline. That comparison makes the gap between the fastest risers and the laggards visible in one frame instead of one country at a time.
Germany and France Stay Below Peaks
Germany and France were still below the highs they reached some years ago, even as other markets pressed much higher. Italy also sat below its prior housing bubble peak that imploded 15 years ago, despite a run-up in recent years that pushed prices back toward earlier territory.
16.8% was the drop in Finland from its early 2022 peak, leaving prices back at 2010 levels by Q1 2026. For Finnish buyers, that puts today’s market in a very different place from the surge that topped out in early 2022, and it shows how uneven Europe’s housing cycle has been.
Eurostat Leaves Greece Out
2005 is the farthest back Eurostat’s transaction-based series reaches for some countries, but Greece is missing from the comparison because that kind of home-price data is not available there. The omission matters for anyone trying to compare Europe market by market, since the table covers 19 large housing markets without one of the region’s major economies.
Q1 2026 is therefore a clean snapshot of where prices have accelerated, where they have rolled over, and where they are still working through older peaks. The next read will come from the next Eurostat quarterly update, and it will show whether the gap between the fastest risers and the below-peak markets narrows or widens.
