EREI-Update: Rents in Europe’s cities are 23% higher on average than in rural areas
In August 2026, the European Real Estate Index (EREI) recorded a decrease of 2.0% on average in the German residential property sales market compared with the previous month. Over the same period, the European average has fallen by 0.5%. Figure 1 shows residential property prices in Europe over time, with all time series indexed to a common benchmark of 100 as at March 31, 2025. Since the start of the index series, residential property prices in Germany have risen by 0.5%, while the European average has increased by 6.1%.
Over the past twelve months, Munich remains the most expensive region in Germany, with an average asking price of 8 941 euros per square meter. Residential properties were least expensive in the town of Hildburghausen in the German state of Thuringia, averaging 987 euros per square meter. The most expensive region overall was Zug, Switzerland, with an average asking price of 18 054 euros per square meter. Figure 2 shows average prices over the past twelve months across all NUTS-3 regions.
In August 2026, the European Real Estate Index recorded an increase of 0.6% on average in the German residential rental market compared with the previous month. Over the same period, the European average has risen by 0.2%. Since October 31, 2025, rents in Germany have risen by 3.4%, while the European average has increased by 2.3%.
The average rent in areas designated by Eurostat as metropolitan regions was 15.6 euros per square metre, compared with 12.6 euro per square metre in non-metropolitan regions. This metropolitan-versus-non-metropolitan premium of 23% is identical in Germany (12.7 euro/m² versus 10.3 euro/m²), but is considerably higher in other countries, such as France and Portugal, at 50% and 39%, respectively.
Over the past twelve months, Munich was again the most expensive region in Germany, with an average rent of 22 euros per square meter. Rents were lowest in Vogtlandkreis, averaging 6 euros per square meter. The most expensive rental market overall was Westminster, with an average rent of 89 euros per square meter.
IWH-EREI-Update: Background, data, and methodology
The European Real Estate Index (EREI) is a new dataset that illustrates developments in the European real estate market. Besides quoted (listing) prices, the data allow users to assess supply-side depth (number of listings) as well as market liquidity (dwell time). EREI data are available across Europe, provide a high level of geographic granularity at NUTS-3 level, and are published monthly. This makes them not only particularly detailed but also up to six months more up to date than official statistics, such as the European Central Bank’s Residential Property Prices (RESR) indicator.
European Real Estate Index (EREI) data can be accessed via an interactive dashboard or application programming interface (API) at erei.iwh-halle.de/dashboard/.
Publication
Michael Koetter, Felix Noth, Fabian Woebbeking: European Real Estate Index (EREI) 2026: A Near-real-time European Real Estate Index EREI: Monthly Listing Prices and Rents for Residential Real Estate. IWH Technical Reports 2/2026. Halle (Saale) 2026.
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European Real Estate Index (EREI) 2026: A Near-real-time European Real Estate Index EREI: Monthly Listing Prices and Rents for Residential Real Estate
in: IWH Technical Reports, 2, 2026
Abstract
Real estate is a capstone connection between various economic agents and markets. It is the main store of household wealth, serves as collateral for mortgage loans in the banking system, aids the transmission of monetary policy, and can propagate financial crises when overvalued. Yet comparable house-price data across the European Union (EU) and the euro area is unavailable, which hinders the design and evaluation of common monetary and economic policy that operates across heterogeneous housing markets. We derive monthly subnational European Real Estate Indicators (EREI) from online residential property advertisements in 16 European countries. The release covers April 2024 to June 2026 and contains 48,168 region-month-segment observations for 1,154 NUTS 3 regions, aggregating more than 43 million listing observations across the monthly sale and rental cross-sections. Each region-month segment reports the number of advertisements and summary statistics for asking prices per square meter and listing durations. The release also includes sale-segment indices for Europe, the euro area, and individual countries. Thirteen covered countries are EU members, which represented 85% of EU-27 gross domestic product in 2024. EREI data support research on a wide range of socio-economic phenomena associated with real estate dynamics, such as the evaluation of monetary policy or macroprudential policy effects on financial stability.
