In the presented European countries, the homeownership rate extended from 42 percent in Switzerland to as much as 96 percent in Albania. Countries with more mature rental markets, such as France, Germany, the UK and Switzerland, tended to have a lower homeownership rate compared to the frontier countries, such as Lithuania or Slovakia. The share of house owners among the population of all 27 European countries has remained relatively stable over the past few years. Average cost of housing Countries with lower homeownership rates tend to have higher house prices. In 2023, the average transaction price for a house was notably higher in Western and Northern Europe than in Eastern and Southern Europe. In Austria - one of the most expensive European countries to buy a new dwelling in - the average price was three times higher than in Greece. Looking at house price growth, however, the most expensive markets recorded slower house price growth compared to the mid-priced markets. Housing supply With population numbers rising across Europe, the need for affordable housing continues. In 2023, European countries completed between one and six housing units per 1,000 citizens, with Ireland, Poland, and Denmark responsible heading the ranking. One of the major challenges for supplying the market with more affordable homes is the rising construction costs. In 2021 and 2022, housing construction costs escalated dramatically due to soaring inflation, which has had a significant effect on new supply.

Geneva stands out as Europe's most expensive city for apartment purchases in early 2025, with prices reaching a staggering 15,720 euros per square meter. This Swiss city's real estate market dwarfs even high-cost locations like Zurich and London, highlighting the extreme disparities in housing affordability across the continent. The stark contrast between Geneva and more affordable cities like Nantes, France, where the price was 3,700 euros per square meter, underscores the complex factors influencing urban property markets in Europe. Rental market dynamics and affordability challenges While purchase prices vary widely, rental markets across Europe also show significant differences. London maintained its position as the continent's priciest city for apartment rentals in 2023, with the average monthly costs for a rental apartment amounting to 36.1 euros per square meter. This figure is double the rent in Lisbon, Portugal or Madrid, Spain, and substantially higher than in other major capitals like Paris and Berlin. The disparity in rental costs reflects broader economic trends, housing policies, and the intricate balance of supply and demand in urban centers. Economic factors influencing housing costs The European housing market is influenced by various economic factors, including inflation and energy costs. As of April 2025, the European Union's inflation rate stood at 2.4 percent, with significant variations among member states. Romania experienced the highest inflation at 4.9 percent, while France and Cyprus maintained lower rates. These economic pressures, coupled with rising energy costs, contribute to the overall cost of living and housing affordability across Europe. The volatility in electricity prices, particularly in countries like Italy where rates are projected to reach 153.83 euros per megawatt hour by February 2025, further impacts housing-related expenses for both homeowners and renters.

Name: Characterization of investments profiles on the energy transition for european citizens

Summary: The dataset contains: (1) surveyee consent form for the study, (2) different scenarios about the energy transition, (3) determinant factors about those scenarios, (4) socioeconomic description of the surveyee, (5) investment decisions, (6) and household characterization/description.

License: cc-BY-SA

Acknowledge: These data have been collected in the framework of the WHY project. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 891943.

Disclaimer: The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) or the European commission (Ec). EASME or the Ec are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Collection Date: 22/07/2022

Publication Date: 15/10/2023

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4455198

Other repositories:

Author: University of Deusto

Objective of collection: This data was originally collected to analyze quantitatively the decisions of everyday people in relation to their energy consumption and their reactions to specific political interventions.

Description: The dataset contains a ODS spreadsheet file containing data collected from a survey about energy consumption investments. The fields that can be found for each entry are (1) Different scenarios about the energy transition and reactions to those scenarios, (money spent on energy investments, decisions about scenarios, actions taken under a blackout, etc.) (2) Determinant factors about the chosen scenarios in the previous question, which include different choices that could affect your decision about a scenario (3) socioeconomic information about the user (age, country of residence, studies), (4) estimation of the prices of various technologies related to the energy transition and (5) descriptive statistics about the household living situation (gender of user, people living in household, yearly rent, average savings per month, type of house, size of house) and also includes questions about climate change expertise. Next you can found a description of each field in the dataset

Section 1 - Scenarios for energy transition.

ID90. Rank in order of priority, from top to bottom, in which scenario you will be willing to live or to contribute/invest to make it possible.

ID36, ID38, ID43, ID44, ID72. Percentage of money people are willing to spend/save out of their income per scenario

ID191, ID192.. Amount of money people would spend based on an assumed case.

ID191, ID192. Priority service provision in case of Intermittent energy service. Rating energy services from 0 to 10 stars, where 0 stars means it is extremely low priority for you and 10 stars means it is absolutely necessary for you.

[ID325, ID326, ID327, ID328, ID329, ID330, ID331, ID332, ID333, ID334, ID335, ID336, ID337, ID338, ID339, ID340, ID341, ID133, ID242]. Priority service provision in case of Intermittent energy service. Rating energy services from 0 to 10 stars, where 0 stars means it is extremely low priority and 10 stars means it is absolutely necessary.

[ID251, ID256, ID257, ID292, ID293, ID294, ID295, ID296, ID297, ID298, ID299, ID301, ID302, ID303, ID304, ID305, ID306, ID250, ID251]. Priority service provision in case of full black-outs. Rating energy services from 0 to 10 stars, where 0 stars means it is extremely low priority and 10 stars means it is absolutely necessary.

[ID141, ID5, ID147]. Used for statements that best represent survey responder

Section 2 - Determinants (factors). Questions used to rate (from 0 to 100) factors that may influence the decision-making process contributing to make an ideal scenario possible.

ID100 Risk profile

ID101 Added value

ID102 Self-Satisfaction

ID103 Technical Fit

ID104 Own competence

ID105 Knowledge

ID106 cost-Efficiency

ID107 Safety

ID108 Trust

ID109 Autarky

ID110 Legal

ID111 climate protection

ID112 Wellbeing

ID113 Coziness

ID114 Rights and Duties

ID115 Peer-Pressure

ID116 Socialising

ID117 Support

ID118 Agreement

ID119 Brag

ID120 Fun

ID121 Novelty

ID122 Trends

ID123 Authority

ID124 Own Significance

ID125 Poseur

ID2 Frugality

ID3 Environmental concerns

ID31 Adherence

ID52 Commitment

ID97 Profits

ID99 Credit Score

Section 3 - “Socio-economic” description. Questions about the socio-economic information of the survey respondents for data stratification. The indentation represents the dependency of questions and whether this data was asked

ID164 Understanding of questions

ID300 Country of residence

ID137 Age

ID178 Highest level of education

ID136 Willingness to provide data on the investment decision (respond apply for -Investment decision section)

Section 4 - Investment decision. Questions about specific prices of potential purchases-decisions related to four scenarios (respondent's lifestyle)

Appliances

ID42 Affordable cost of a Regular refrigerator

ID45 Energy efficient refrigerator costs

ID50 Willingness to purchase an energy efficient refrigerator

ID65 Why no

ID66 affordable cost of an energy efficient option

ID67 Years to amortize an efficient option

Insulation

ID47 Affordable cost of updating to a state of the art insulation on the facade

ID56 Willingness for paying/invest

ID74 Why no?

ID20 affordable cost of an energy efficient option

ID34 Years to amortize an energy efficient option

Energy Generation

ID68 Affordable cost of a solar photovoltaic system

ID76 Willingness for paying/invest

ID84 Why no?

ID132 Affordable cost of a photovoltaic system

ID138 Years that amortize a photovoltaic system

Energy Storage

ID142 Affordable cost of an energy storage system

ID146 Willingness for paying/invest

ID181 Why no?

ID182 Affordable cost of an energy storage system

ID183 Years that amortize an energy storage systems

Heating

ID140 Affordable cost of a gas boiler

ID209 Affordable cost of an energy efficient heating system

ID217 Willingness for paying/invest

ID238 Why no?

ID239 Affordable cost of a energy efficient option

ID241 Years that amortize a heat pumps

Mobility

ID41 Average kilometers traveled a typical day

ID51 Usual travel option

ID264 Affordable cost of a diesel or gasoline mid-range brand new car

ID265 Affordable cost of a mid-range brand new electric car

ID281 Willingness to buy an electric car

ID289 Why no?

ID290 Affordable price of an electric car

ID291 Years that amortize an electric car

Section 5 - Household characterization

ID127 Selecting an asked value

ID189 Type of living area

ID202 Gender identity

ID1 Those living in the house

ID32 Number of inhabitants

ID220 Average neat yearly income

ID229 Average monthly saving

ID240 Type of housing

ID249 Owner / co-owner

ID255 Usable area of the property (m²)

ID263 Insulation level

ID270 Climate zone

ID86 Level of self-awareness about climate change. On scale of 0-10, where 0 is “climate change does not exist” and 10 is “I am a climate change expert/activist”

ID87 Level of awareness of climate change among your peers or relatives, On a scale of 0-10, where 0 is “climate change does not exist” and 10 is “They are climate change experts/activists”

ID88 Level of self-awareness about energy transition. On a scale of 0-10, where 0 is “It is the first time I hear about it” and 10 is “I am an expert or activist”

ID89 Level of awareness of energy transition among your peers or relatives On a scale of 0-10, where 0 is “It is the first time they hear about it” and 10 is “They are experts or activists”

ID190 feedback about survey

5 star: ⭐⭐⭐

Preprocessing steps: anonymization, data fusion, imputation of gaps.

Reuse: NA

Update policy: No more updates are planned

Ethics and legal aspects: Spanish electric cooperative data contains the CUPS (Meter Point Administration Number), which is personal data. A pre-processing step has been carried out to substitute the CUPS by a random value hash.

Technical aspects:

Other:

One of the main factors driving high rents across European cities is the same as any other consumer-driven business. If demand outweighs supply, prices will inflate. The drive for high paid professionals to be located centrally in prime locations, mixed with the low levels of available space, high land, and construction costs, all keep rental prices increasing. Renting in European cities In 2025, Munich was the most expensive city to rent a furnished studio among the 23 cities surveyed. At ***** euros per month, renting a studio in Munich cost nearly twice the price of a studio in Athens. For one-bedroom apartments or a furnished private room, the most expensive city was Amsterdam. Homeownership in Europe In many European countries owning your home is more commonplace than renting – for instance, in Romania, the homeownership rate is over ** percent. In the UK, affordability of housing is one of the leading housing concerns, with the majority of adults agreeing that first-time buyers getting on a property ladder is a very or somewhat serious problem.

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.

In 2022, house price growth in the UK slowed, after a period of decade-long increase. Nevertheless, in March 2025, prices reached a new peak, with the average home costing ******* British pounds. This figure refers to all property types, including detached, semi-detached, terraced houses, and flats and maisonettes. Compared to other European countries, the UK had some of the highest house prices. How have UK house prices increased over the last 10 years? Property prices have risen dramatically over the past decade. According to the UK house price index, the average house price has grown by over ** percent since 2015. This price development has led to the gap between the cost of buying and renting a property to close. In 2023, buying a three-bedroom house in the UK was no longer more affordable than renting one. Consequently, Brits have become more likely to rent longer and push off making a house purchase until they have saved up enough for a down payment and achieved the financial stability required to make the step. What caused the recent fluctuations in house prices? House prices are affected by multiple factors, such as mortgage rates, supply, and demand on the market. For nearly a decade, the UK experienced uninterrupted house price growth as a result of strong demand and a chronic undersupply. Homebuyers who purchased a property at the peak of the housing boom in July 2022 paid ** percent more compared to what they would have paid a year before. Additionally, 2022 saw the most dramatic increase in mortgage rates in recent history. Between December 2021 and December 2022, the **-year fixed mortgage rate doubled, adding further strain to prospective homebuyers. As a result, the market cooled, leading to a correction in pricing.

East Dunbartonshire, the city of Edinburgh, East Loathian and East Renfrewshire were the most xpensive regions for residential property in Scotland as of February 2025. The average house price in those regions were over 300,000 British pounds. In comparison, the average house price in Scotland was almost two times lower. Which are the most expensive streets to live in Scotland? With the average house price valued at approximately 3 million British pounds, Queen's Crescent, Auchterarder PH3 was the most expensive street for residential real estate in Scotland in 2024. This was almost twice higher than in the second-priciest street, Ann street, Edinburgh EH4. Compared to other regions in the UK, Scotland is affordable Though 3.6 million British pounds is an impressive figure, not all housing in Scotland falls in this price bracket. In fact, with an average house price of about 170,000 British pounds, Scotland is the third most affordable region for first-time home buyers. Furthermore, it has the second lowest rent to income ratio in the UK.