The highest percentage of income in the EU is spent by ordinary households in our country on housing, reaching 34.2% in 2022 when the rest of the Europeans spend an average of 19.9%. After Greece, the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany follow, according to the Financial Stability Report.
The report also notes the excessive housing cost burden. In 2022, 27% of the country’s population shouldered housing costs that accounted for more than 40% of their disposable income, when the corresponding percentage of the population in the euro area was 9.4%.
With reference to real estate prices, the Bank of Greece estimates that there is scope for further growth despite their significant increase in recent years, and this is because housing prices in Greece are still far from the historic high recorded before the financial crisis of 2008.
The highest value of the index was observed in the year 2008 (101.7) and then followed a steady downward trend, to record the lowest value in 2017 (59).
The evolution of the level of rents is similar, with the relative index being 98.5 based on the data of the third quarter of 2023, against 94.8 in the fourth quarter of 2022. The rent index, in contrast to house price index, remains significantly lower than the highest value it has received historically (124.3 in the 3rd quarter of 2011).
(Source: APE – MEB)
