In 2023, Germany had the largest housing stock among European countries with a total of **** million housing units. Other countries heading the ranking were France, Spain, and the United Kingdom (UK). This was not surprising, considering that the top four countries have some of the largest population in Europe. In terms of the number of housing units per 1,000 citizens, however, the top three countries were Bulgaria, Spain and France. Which European countries build the most housing? Supply of new housing varies greatly in different countries. In 2023, Ireland and Poland delivered the highest number of housing completions, but when it comes to construction starts, Ireland topped the ranking, leaving Serbia and Austria in second and third place, respectively. How did house prices change in 2023? Demand for housing remained strong in 2023, causing house prices to grow in almost all European countries. The United Kingdom was one of the few countries where home prices declined - a result of the soaring interest rates and cost of living crisis. Hungary was at the other side of the spectrum, with house prices surging by more than ** percent.

The German manufactured homes market, valued at approximately €8 billion in 2025, is experiencing robust growth, projected to maintain a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) exceeding 4% through 2033. This expansion is fueled by several key drivers. Firstly, increasing urbanization and housing shortages in major cities like Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Frankfurt are creating significant demand for affordable and quickly deployable housing solutions. Manufactured homes, with their shorter construction times and potentially lower costs compared to traditional homes, effectively address this need. Secondly, growing environmental concerns and a push for sustainable construction practices are boosting the appeal of manufactured homes built with energy-efficient materials and designs. Finally, evolving consumer preferences are favoring modern, customizable manufactured homes that offer comparable quality and aesthetics to site-built homes. While challenges exist, such as regulatory hurdles and public perception, the overall market outlook remains positive. The market segmentation reveals strong demand across both single-family and multi-family units. Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Frankfurt are leading the market, driven by their high population densities and significant housing deficits. Key players like Baufritz, Fertighaus Weiss GmbH, Portakabin, Hanse Haus, ALHO Modular Buildings, DFH Group, Swietelsky AG, Daiwa House Modular Europe, HusCompagniet A/S, and Karmod are actively competing in this dynamic market, further contributing to its growth trajectory. The continued focus on innovation, sustainable construction practices, and addressing the housing crisis will be vital for the long-term success of the German manufactured homes market. The market's trajectory indicates significant investment opportunities and expansion potential for companies involved in manufacturing, distribution, and supporting infrastructure. Recent developments include: July 2022:Bouygues' acquisition of Equans, The merger is also subject to review by the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK, which has also issued a decision on its investigation on 19 July 2022. Bouygues offered to divest Colas Rail Belgium in its entirety, including all assets, personnel, and ongoing and future contracts of both its railway contact lines and track installation businesses. As a result, Colas Rail Belgium will remain an independent competitor to Bouygues and Equans in the relevant market in Belgium., May 2022:OECON sold to Portakabin. The acquisition of OECON is a key strategic move and part of the Portakabin Group's European expansion plans. OECON will complement the current Portakabin operations in France, Belgium, and Holland and provide the necessary routes to market for the extensive range of Portakabin modular buildings within the office, healthcare, and education sectors in Germany.. Key drivers for this market are: Increasing Demand of prefabricated Housing in GCC, Government Initiatives Driving the Construction. Potential restraints include: Low construction tolerance, supplier dependance and expensive development. Notable trends are: Rapid Urbanization in the Region is Driving the Market.

Germany Manufactured Homes Market Size was valued at USD 7.30 Billion in 2024 and is Projected to reach USD 53 Billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 6.4% from 2026 to 2032.

Affordable Housing Crisis: According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the average property price in Germany will rise 11.5% by 2023, making traditional dwellings out of reach for many. Meanwhile, prefabricated homes are often priced 20-30% lower than traditional residences, making them a more appealing alternative for first-time purchasers. Aging Population and Retirement Housing Needs: According to Germany's Federal Statistical Office, 22.4% of the population is 65 years or older as of 2024, with the figure predicted to rise to 27% by 2033. This demographic trend is increasing demand for single-story, accessible prefabricated houses that meet the demands of elders.

Portugal, Canada, and the United States were the countries with the highest house price to income ratio in 2024. In all three countries, the index exceeded 130 index points, while the average for all OECD countries stood at 116.2 index points. The index measures the development of housing affordability and is calculated by dividing nominal house price by nominal disposable income per head, with 2015 set as a base year when the index amounted to 100. An index value of 120, for example, would mean that house price growth has outpaced income growth by 20 percent since 2015. How have house prices worldwide changed since the COVID-19 pandemic? House prices started to rise gradually after the global financial crisis (2007–2008), but this trend accelerated with the pandemic. The countries with advanced economies, which usually have mature housing markets, experienced stronger growth than countries with emerging economies. Real house price growth (accounting for inflation) peaked in 2022 and has since lost some of the gain. Although, many countries experienced a decline in house prices, the global house price index shows that property prices in 2023 were still substantially higher than before COVID-19. Renting vs. buying In the past, house prices have grown faster than rents. However, the home affordability has been declining notably, with a direct impact on rental prices. As people struggle to buy a property of their own, they often turn to rental accommodation. This has resulted in a growing demand for rental apartments and soaring rental prices.

The financial crisis of 2008 has caused a number of changes in the investment of both companies and individuals. One of the widely invested assets became the real estate market. The decline in real estate prices was noted in 2009 and 2012-2014. The highest decrease in property prices was indicated in Bulgaria, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and Estonia. Property prices, despite the crisis, increased however in Belgium and Germany. On average, property prices in the EU declined by 4.4% in 2009, 1.9% in 2012 and 1.2% in 2013.

The property brokerage sector was hardly affected by the coronavirus crisis and the war in Ukraine. Demand for residential property in urban areas is very high, while demand for office and retail space collapsed in 2020. The slump in demand for commercial space was largely absorbed by industry players, as many companies sold their commercial properties and rented them themselves in order to increase their liquidity in the short term. These sale-and-lease-back transactions often required advice from industry players. Due to the weak development on the commercial property market, turnover is expected to fall by 0.9% to 12.8 billion euros in the current year. On average, a decline in turnover of 3.3% per year has been observed over the past five years. The increased regulation of the property market, such as the rent freeze, has also contributed to this. Politicians have also responded to the sometimes low level of qualification of estate agents by making further training certificates a legal requirement.Despite rising property prices, estate agents are still benefiting from a high willingness to invest in property as a capital investment in the current year. One reason for this is the high level of rents. However, the high level of interest rates reduces the incentives to invest in a home if the client is reliant on borrowed capital. The short supply of properties is driving up property prices in many German cities and is a major factor in the high level of brokerage fees that estate agents receive for successful brokerage. In addition, residential property is considered an attractive capital investment, especially for wealthy private individuals and investors, which is considered crisis-proof in times of volatile securities markets and persistent inflation.Over the next five years up to and including 2029, IBISWorld expects industry turnover to increase by an average of 0.2% per year to an estimated 12.9 billion euros. While the number of commercial property sales will fall due to the negative impact of working from home and online retail, industry players will benefit from recovering demand on the residential property market. Demand for residential property will once again benefit from the reputation of residential property as a crisis-proof investment, even if the high level of interest rates will continue to dampen demand somewhat. In order to remain competitive in a highly fragmented market with low barriers to market entry, companies must increasingly focus on high-quality service offerings.

House prices in the UK rose dramatically during the coronavirus pandemic, with growth slowing down in 2022 and turning negative in 2023. The year-on-year annual house price change peaked at 14 percent in July 2022. In April 2025, house prices increased by 3.5 percent. As of late 2024, the average house price was close to 290,000 British pounds. Correction in housing prices: a European phenomenon The trend of a growing residential real estate market was not exclusive to the UK during the pandemic. Likewise, many European countries experienced falling prices in 2023. When comparing residential property RHPI (price index in real terms, e.g. corrected for inflation), countries such as Germany, France, Italy, and Spain also saw prices decline. Sweden, one of the countries with the fastest growing residential markets, saw one of the largest declines in prices. How has demand for UK housing changed since the outbreak of the coronavirus? The easing of the lockdown was followed by a dramatic increase in home sales. In November 2020, the number of mortgage approvals reached an all-time high of over 107,000. One of the reasons for the housing boom were the low mortgage rates, allowing home buyers to take out a loan with an interest rate as low as 2.5 percent. That changed as the Bank of England started to raise the base lending rate, resulting in higher borrowing costs and a decline in homebuyer sentiment.

With the collapse of the U.S. housing market and the subsequent financial crisis on Wall Street in 2007 and 2008, economies across the globe began to enter into deep recessions. What had started out as a crisis centered on the United States quickly became global in nature, as it became apparent that not only had the economies of other advanced countries (grouped together as the G7) become intimately tied to the U.S. financial system, but that many of them had experienced housing and asset price bubbles similar to that in the U.S.. The United Kingdom had experienced a huge inflation of housing prices since the 1990s, while Eurozone members (such as Germany, France and Italy) had financial sectors which had become involved in reckless lending to economies on the periphery of the EU, such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Other countries, such as Japan, were hit heavily due their export-led growth models which suffered from the decline in international trade. Unemployment during the Great Recession As business and consumer confidence crashed, credit markets froze, and international trade contracted, the unemployment rate in the most advanced economies shot up. While four to five percent is generally considered to be a healthy unemployment rate, nearing full employment in the economy (when any remaining unemployment is not related to a lack of consumer demand), many of these countries experienced rates at least double that, with unemployment in the United States peaking at almost 10 percent in 2010. In large countries, unemployment rates of this level meant millions or tens of millions of people being out of work, which led to political pressures to stimulate economies and create jobs. By 2012, many of these countries were seeing declining unemployment rates, however, in France and Italy rates of joblessness continued to increase as the Euro crisis took hold. These countries suffered from having a monetary policy which was too tight for their economies (due to the ECB controlling interest rates) and fiscal policy which was constrained by EU debt rules. Left with the option of deregulating their labor markets and pursuing austerity policies, their unemployment rates remained over 10 percent well into the 2010s. Differences in labor markets The differences in unemployment rates at the peak of the crisis (2009-2010) reflect not only the differences in how economies were affected by the downturn, but also the differing labor market institutions and programs in the various countries. Countries with more 'liberalized' labor markets, such as the United States and United Kingdom experienced sharp jumps in their unemployment rate due to the ease at which employers can lay off workers in these countries. When the crisis subsided in these countries, however, their unemployment rates quickly began to drop below those of the other countries, due to their more dynamic labor markets which make it easier to hire workers when the economy is doing well. On the other hand, countries with more 'coordinated' labor market institutions, such as Germany and Japan, experiences lower rates of unemployment during the crisis, as programs such as short-time work, job sharing, and wage restraint agreements were used to keep workers in their jobs. While these countries are less likely to experience spikes in unemployment during crises, the highly regulated nature of their labor markets mean that they are slower to add jobs during periods of economic prosperity.