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European house prices

increased in 2020 by 4.8%, down from a 5.8% growth rate in 2019. This continued an upward trend that began in 2014, but the pace of growth peaked in 2018, as reported in the previous edition of this report. Between 2011 and 2020, house prices increased at very different rates in the majority of the Hypostat sample, yet some southern European countries diverge from this latter trend.

Newly issued building permits

a key indicator of housing supply, decreased by 5% year-on-year in 2020 in EU. A majority of jurisdictions reported a decreasing number of permits, although there are noticeable exceptions to this, which points to a somewhat diverse landscape for construction prospects in Europe. New building permits represented 0.74% of the combined EU27 and UK building stock, 0.04 pps less than in 2019, and clearly below the 2000-2007 1% average.

outstanding mortgage loans

The volume of outstanding mortgage loans in the EU27 reached EUR 6.17 tn at the end of 2020, a 4.5% y-o-y increase and the largest since 2008. Adding the UK, Norway and Iceland to the European stock, the figure reached EUR 7.83 tn outstanding, a new all-time high for the region. Total gross lending grew by over 5% in the EU27 in 2020, surpassing the all-time high of 2019 and reaching nearly EUR 1.1 tn.

Average interest rates

fell slightly more rapidly in 2020, as the average rate reached 2.11%, 26 bps lower than in 2019. In the meantime, variable interest rate mortgages represented just under 20% of the total stock, continuing the ten-year-long declining trend which started in 2010, when the proportion was over 60%.