House prices are booming across Europe leaving the modest 1.5% year-on-year increase in the UK languishing near the bottom of the pile.
Although average house prices across the European Union grew by an average 4%, property buyers in some countries were big winners.
The highest annual increase in the first three months of the year was in Hungary, where home values surged by 11.3% and where the upward movement looks like continuing as prices leapt by another 3.7% compared with the previous quarter.
The Czech Republic (9.4%) and Portugal (9.2%) also recorded big annual rises, according to official data from Eurostat, the EU statistics authority.
At the other end of the table, prices dropped 0.8% in Italy. Homebuyers in Finland saw a marginal 0.7% increase, followed by a 1.5% annual rise in the UK and Sweden.
However, the boost in prices looks to be fading as four countries fall into negative growth in the first quarter of 2019.
Highs and lows
The largest collapse is in Malta – where prices grew by 3.7% in the last quarter of 2018, but slumped 7.9% to -4.2% three months later.
Also in the red are Germany (-0.3%), Ireland (-0.1%) and Italy (-0.5%), which worsened from -0.1% at the end of 2018.
A high spot is Denmark where quarterly prices have turned around from -2.2% in the final months of 2018 to +2.3% at the start of 2019.
France saw a small U-turn, up from -0.2% at the end of 2018 to 0% in Q1 2019.
Many other countries have seen a slowdown in property price rises, probably as the result of Brexit uncertainty and general poor performance of the EU economy.
EU House Prices Changes Q1 2019
| Country | Q1 2019 y-o-y | Q1 2019 m-o-m |
| EU | 4.0% | 0.3% |
| Belgium | 3.6% | 1.1% |
| Bulgaria | 7.3% | 2.6% |
| Czech Republic | 9.4% | 1.7% |
| Denmark | 1.9% | 2.3% |
| Germany | 5.0% | -0.3% |
| Estonia | 5.9% | 1.7% |
| Ireland | 4.4% | -1.0% |
| Greece | No data | |
| Spain | 6.9% | 1.6% |
| France | 2.9% | 0.0% |
| Croatia | 7.4% | 3.5% |
| Italy | -0.8% | -0.5% |
| Cyprus | 4.3% | 0.8% |
| Latvia | 7.1% | 1.5% |
| Lithuania | 6.8% | 1.9% |
| Luxembourg | 6.9% | 0.8% |
| Hungary | 11.3% | 3.7% |
| Malta | 6.5% | -4.2% |
| Netherlands | 8.2% | 1.9% |
| Austria | 4.2% | 0.2% |
| Poland | 8.1% | 1.9% |
| Portugal | 9.2% | 3.6% |
| Romania | 3.3% | 0.1% |
| Slovenia | 8.4% | 0.8% |
| Slovakia | 5.7% | 1.9% |
| Finland | 0.7% | -0.8% |
| Sweden | 1.5% | 0.1% |
| United Kingdom | 1.5% | -1.3% |
Source: Eurostat
