Across Europe, housing has become one of the defining cost pressures of the decade. As grocery and energy bills climb, the rent or mortgage payment now claims an outsized slice of many household budgets, and according to Eurostat, the strain is plainly visible in the major economies that anchor the EU. Yet the picture is far from uniform, even among countries at similar levels of wealth.
According to Eurostat, as of 2024, Germany tops the list of major EU economies, with 11.2% of people spending more than 40% of their disposable income on housing, followed closely by Sweden at 10.8%. Both sit well above the EU-27 average of 7.7%. Spain (7.2%), Belgium (6.7%), the Netherlands (6.5%) and France (6.4%) cluster just below that benchmark, while Austria (6.1%) and Ireland (5.3%) fare somewhat better. At the lower end, Italy (5.0%) and Poland (4.1%) show the smallest shares among the group, though this reflects differences in housing markets, ownership rates and household structures rather than an absence of pressure.
