Greece remains the clear outlier
In 2024, Greece records by far the highest housing cost overburden rate, with a level almost twice as high as the next countries in the ranking.
Long-term trends • Living conditions
Housing affordability across Europe
When housing costs absorb too much income
Housing affordability is one of the clearest ways to see pressure on household budgets. This page tracks the housing cost overburden rate across EU and EFTA countries from 2010 to 2024. The indicator measures the share of people living in households where housing costs exceed 40% of disposable income.
The time series shows how housing cost pressure changed over time: which countries remained structurally high, which improved, and where affordability pressure has increased in recent years. The latest map and table then provide a clear snapshot of the most recent year.
Explore the data
Key insights
High income does not guarantee low pressure
Countries such as Norway, Switzerland and Denmark show that housing cost pressure can remain high even in wealthy economies.
Some countries improved strongly
Romania and Croatia recorded the largest declines between 2010 and 2024, showing that affordability pressure can ease significantly over time.
Key comparisons
Selected highlights from the housing cost overburden rate dataset, 2010–2024.
Extended analysis
1) Housing affordability is measured through income pressure
The housing cost overburden rate focuses on people living in households where housing costs take up more than 40% of disposable income. This makes the indicator different from house prices or rents alone: it captures the relationship between housing costs and household income.
In practical terms, a higher value means that a larger share of the population faces excessive housing cost pressure. This is why the indicator is useful for comparing affordability stress across countries with very different income levels and housing systems.
2) The 2024 snapshot shows a wide gap between countries
In the latest year, Greece stands out with a housing cost overburden rate of 28.9%. It is followed by Norway (15.4%), Switzerland (15.3%) and Denmark (14.6%).
At the other end of the ranking, Cyprus records the lowest value at 2.4%, followed by Croatia (3.7%) and Slovenia (3.8%). The distance between the highest and lowest values therefore remains very large.
3) Greece shows a long-term structural deterioration
The strongest increase between 2010 and 2024 was recorded in Greece, where the rate rose from 18.1% to 28.9%. The time series also shows an even higher peak in 2015, when the housing cost overburden rate reached 45.5%.
This pattern suggests a structural affordability problem rather than a short temporary fluctuation. Greece remains the only country in the dataset where more than a quarter of the population was overburdened in 2024.
4) Improvement is possible, but not evenly distributed
Some countries moved in the opposite direction. The largest decline was recorded in Romania, where the rate fell from 15.8% in 2010 to 4.7% in 2024. Croatia also improved strongly, declining from 14.1% to 3.7%.
These shifts show that housing cost pressure can ease substantially over time. However, the broader picture remains mixed: while some countries improved, others — including several high-income economies — recorded rising housing cost pressure over the same period.
How to read this indicator
The housing cost overburden rate measures the share of people living in households where housing costs exceed 40% of disposable income. It is useful for comparing pressure on household budgets, but it does not capture all aspects of housing affordability. Housing quality, overcrowding, location, mortgage conditions, rent regulation and household composition can all affect how housing affordability is experienced in everyday life. Iceland and Liechtenstein are not shown because comparable data were not available in the dataset used here.