Press release

The European Mortgage Federation (EMF) is pleased to announce the publication of the 2024 edition of Hypostat, the EMF-ECBC’s annual statistical publication encompassing data on recent developments in housing and mortgage markets in Europe and beyond.

The 2024 edition (covering data until end 2023) presents data and analyses for 31 European countries (the EU27 plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), as well as data from nine additional countries further afield (Australia, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Turkey and the United States of America).

 Besides the country specific data, key facts reported in Hypostat 2024 include:

• The European mortgage and housing finance sectors face three key challenges. Firstly, from an environmental standpoint, European residential dwellings must adapt to rapidly changing climate conditions and comply with new building energy performance requirements, to contribute towards meeting the EU’s climate goals. The environmental standpoint is elaborated further in an article in Hypostat 2024. Secondly, the demographic changes in Europe, which depict different dynamics in different regions and cities. This leads to heterogenous challenges with some areas facing demographic expansion and house price increases whilst others witness people leaving and house prices falling. Lastly, growing financing costs, driven by central banks’ efforts to counter rising inflationary pressure, puts pressure on the affordability of housing and impacts transactions.
• On average, the total number of building permits issued continued to decrease by 21% in the EU27, after a 6.5% fall in 2022.
• The average, unweighted EU27 house price index grew by 3% in 2023, after an 11.6% increase in 2022, slowing down a trend that began in 2013.
• Compared to 2022, there has been no change in the ranking of the largest mortgage markets. Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK combined represent 76% of outstanding mortgages in the EU27 plus UK aggregate.
• The total EU mortgage market remained quite stable passing from EUR 6.7 trillion in 2022 to EUR 6.8 trillion in 2023 (+0.8%). In the non-Euro area there has been the same increment of 0.8%. Adding the UK, Norway and Iceland, the figure reached EUR 9 trillion outstanding.
• Average unweighted EU27 interest rates on mortgages stood at 4.72% in 2023 compared to 3.11% in 2022. The UK interest reached 4.81% in 2023 compared to 2.56% in 2022.

Hypostat 2024 is the result of a collaborative effort by EMF national delegations and external experts. On behalf of the EMF Research & Data Committee and its Chairman, Mr Gyula Nagy, which coordinates the preparation of each year’s report, we would like to sincerely thank all contributors for making the publication of Hypostat 2024 possible.

Commenting on Hypostat 2024, Luca Bertalot, EMF-ECBC Secretary General, stated:

“’Building the hope for a better future’ has been the leitmotiv for many political initiatives, where themes such as housing affordability and sustainability are knocking at the doors of parliaments around the world. The complexity and depth of those challenges are requiring a systemic response addressing fundamental economic, financial, environmental and social issues. This systemic response should focus on rapidly mobilising both public and private sector resources in coordinated and complementary ways.

Housing markets are a central means to drive integration and social stability in towns, cities, regions and countries across Europe, and at a global level. Indeed, the hope for a better future and, moreover, the microeconomic incentives to access affordable and sustainable housing are the basis for securing macroeconomic financial stability and social integration in the Single Market via an ecosystem where no one is left behind.”