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.

Affordability ratios calculated by dividing house prices by gross annual workplace-based earnings. Based on the median and lower quartiles of both house prices and earnings in England and Wales.

Affordability ratios calculated by dividing house prices by gross annual residence-based earnings. Based on the median and lower quartiles of both house prices and earnings in England and Wales.

The house price to income index in Europe declined in almost all European countries in 2023, indicating that income grew faster than house prices. Portugal, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands led the house price to income index ranking in 2023, with values exceeding *** index points. Romania, Bulgaria, and Finland were on the other side of the spectrum, with less than 100 index points. The house price to income ratio is an indicator for the development of housing affordability across OECD countries and is calculated as the nominal house prices divided by nominal disposable income per head, with 2015 chosen as a base year. A ratio higher than 100 means that the nominal house price growth since 2015 has outpaced the nominal disposable income growth, and housing is therefore comparatively less affordable. In 2023, the OECD average stood at ***** index points.

Rents in Germany continued to increase in all seven major cities in 2024. The average rent per square meter in Munich was approximately **** euros — the highest in the country. Conversely, Düsseldorf had the most affordable rent, at approximately **** euros per square meter. But how does renting compare to buying? According to the house price to rent ratio, house prices in Germany have risen faster than rents, making renting more affordable than buying. Affordability of housing in Germany In 2023, Germany was among the European countries with a relatively high house price to income ratio in Europe. The indicator compares the affordability of housing across OECD countries and is calculated as the nominal house prices divided by nominal disposable income per head, with 2015 chosen as a base year. Between 2012 and 2022, property prices in the country rose much faster than income, with the house price to income index peaking at *** index points at the beginning of 2022. Slower house price growth in the following years has led to the index declining, as incomes catch up. Nevertheless, homebuyers in 2024 faced significantly higher mortgage interest rates, contributing to a higher final cost. How much does buying a property in Germany cost? Just as with renting, Munich was the most expensive city for newly built apartments. In 2024, the cost per square meter in Munich was almost ***** euros pricier than in the runner-up city, Frankfurt. Detached and semi-detached houses are usually more expensive. The price gap between Munich and the second most expensive city, Stuttgart, was nearly ***** euros per square meter.

Analysis of ‘ Zillow Housing Aspirations Report’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://www.kaggle.com/yamqwe/zillow-housing-aspirations-reporte on 13 February 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

About this dataset

Additional Data Products

Product: Zillow Housing Aspirations Report

Date: April 2017

Definitions

Home Types and Housing Stock

• All Homes: Zillow defines all homes as single-family, condominium and co-operative homes with a county record. Unless specified, all series cover this segment of the housing stock.
• Condo/Co-op: Condominium and co-operative homes.
• Multifamily 5+ units: Units in buildings with 5 or more housing units, that are not a condominiums or co-ops.
• Duplex/Triplex: Housing units in buildings with 2 or 3 housing units.

Additional Data Products

• Zillow Home Value Forecast (ZHVF): The ZHVF is the one-year forecast of the ZHVI. Our forecast methodology is methodology post.
• Zillow creates our negative equity data using our own data in conjunction with data received through our partnership with TransUnion, a leading credit bureau. We match estimated home values against actual outstanding home-related debt amounts provided by TransUnion. To read more about how we calculate our negative equity metrics, please see our here.
• Cash Buyers: The share of homes in a given area purchased without financing/in cash. To read about how we calculate our cash buyer data, please see our research brief.
• Mortgage Affordability, Rental Affordability, Price-to-Income Ratio, Historical ZHVI, Historical ZHVI and Houshold Income are calculated as a part of Zillow’s quarterly Affordability Indices. To calculate mortgage affordability, we first calculate the mortgage payment for the median-valued home in a metropolitan area by using the metro-level Zillow Home Value Index for a given quarter and the 30-year fixed mortgage interest rate during that time period, provided by the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (based on a 20 percent down payment). Then, we consider what portion of the monthly median household income (U.S. Census) goes toward this monthly mortgage payment. Median household income is available with a lag. For quarters where median income is not available from the U.S. Census Bureau, we calculate future quarters of median household income by estimating it using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Cost Index. The affordability forecast is calculated similarly to the current affordability index but uses the one year Zillow Home Value Forecast instead of the current Zillow Home Value Index and a specified interest rate in lieu of PMMS. It also assumes a 20 percent down payment. We calculate rent affordability similarly to mortgage affordability; however we use the Zillow Rent Index, which tracks the monthly median rent in particular geographical regions, to capture rental prices. Rents are chained back in time by using U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data from 2006 to the start of the Zillow Rent Index, and Decennial Census for all other years.
• The mortgage rate series is the average mortgage rate quoted on Zillow Mortgages for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage in 15-minute increments during business hours, 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific. It does not include quotes for jumbo loans, FHA loans, VA loans, loans with mortgage insurance or quotes to consumers with credit scores below 720. Federal holidays are excluded. The jumbo mortgage rate series is the average jumbo mortgage rate quoted on Zillow Mortgages for a 30-year, fixed-rate, jumbo mortgage in one-hour increments during business hours, 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific Time. It does not include quotes to consumers with credit scores below 720. Traditional federal holidays and hours with insufficient sample sizes are excluded.

About Zillow Data (and Terms of Use Information)

• Zillow is in the process of transitioning some data sources with the goal of producing published data that is more comprehensive, reliable, accurate and timely. As this new data is incorporated, the publication of select metrics may be delayed or temporarily suspended. We look forward to resuming our usual publication schedule for all of our established datasets as soon as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
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• To download all Zillow metrics for specific levels of geography, click here.
• To download a crosswalk between Zillow regions and federally defined regions for counties and metro areas, click here.
• Unless otherwise noted, all series cover single-family residences, condominiums and co-op homes only.

Source: https://www.zillow.com/research/data/

This dataset was created by Zillow Data and contains around 200 samples along with Unnamed: 1, Unnamed: 0, technical information and other features such as: - Unnamed: 1 - Unnamed: 0 - and more.

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In the fourth quarter of 2024, the house price-to-rent ratio in Australia was estimated at 127.2, marking a decrease from the same quarter of the previous year. An indicator of how strong the property market is, the house price-to-rent ratio was calculated by dividing nominal house prices by rent price indices. Within the given period, after reaching a peak in the first quarter of 2022, the price-to-rent ratio decreased each quarter until the second quarter of 2023. From then on, the house price-to-rent ratio fluctuated, but largely trended downwards. Is Australia in a property bubble? Many industry experts believe the country is in a property bubble, indicated by the rapid increase in Australian property market prices to the point that they are no longer relative to incomes and rents, followed by a decline. The house price-to-income ratio was on an upward trend between the third quarter of 2022 and the second quarter of 2024. Nonetheless, after hitting its peak, it declined to 119.2 in the fourth quarter of 2024. Rental property demand In March 2025, the rental vacancy rate, which indicates how many properties are available for rent out of all the rental stock, was relatively high in Melbourne, Canberra, and Sydney. That year, the average weekly rent prices varied across the country depending on the city, with the highest average weekly rents for houses and units in Sydney. Hobart, on the other hand, had the most affordable rental properties across Australia's capital cities.

Since 2015, the gap between the cost of buying a home and renting has grown, with homeownership becoming increasingly less affordable. In the ***** ******* of 2024, the house price to rent ratio in the UK stood at *****. That meant that house price growth has outpaced rental growth by nearly ** percent between 2015 and 2024. The UK's house price to rent ratio was slightly below the average Euro area ratio. House price to income ratio in the UK Another indicator for housing affordability is the house price to income ratio, which is calculated by dividing nominal house prices by the nominal disposable income per head. The ratio saw an overall increase between 2015, which was the base year, and 2022. After that, the index declined, but remained close to the average for the Euro area. Is it more affordable to rent or buy? There are many things to be considered when comparing buying to renting, such as the ability to qualify for a mortgage and whether prospective homebuyers have sufficient savings for a deposit. Generally, purchasing a home is more affordable than renting one. However, the average monthly savings first-time buyers can achieve have been on the decline. In East of England, where house prices have increased rapidly over the past few years, it was cheaper to rent than to buy in 2022.

The house price to income ratio in Germany in the first quarter of 2024 declined notably from its peak in 2022. The ratio 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. Germany's index score in the first quarter of 2024 amounted to *****, which means that house price growth had outpaced income growth by about ** percent since 2015. This was below the average house price to income area in the Euro area 16.

New Zealand has *** of the highest house price-to-income ratios in the world; nonetheless, since the first quarter of 2022, the country's house price-to-income ratio started to trend downward. In the third quarter of 2024, the ratio was ***, a slight decrease from the same quarter of the previous year. This ratio was calculated by dividing nominal house prices by nominal disposable income per head and is considered a measure of affordability. Homeownership dream New Zealand has been in what is widely considered a housing bubble. The disproportionately large increases in residential house prices have placed the dream of owning their own home out of reach for many in the country. In 2024, around ** percent of residential properties were sold for over a million New Zealand dollars. The majority of mortgage lending in the country went to owner-occupiers where the property was not their first home, with first-home buyers often struggling to secure a loan. In general, only New Zealand residents and citizens can buy homes in the country to live in, with new regulations tightening investment activity in that market. Rent affordability Due to New Zealand's high property prices, many individuals and families are stuck renting for prolonged periods. However, with rent prices increasing across the country and the share of monthly income spent on rent trending upwards in tandem with a highly competitive rental market, renting is becoming a less appealing prospect for many. The Auckland and Bay of Plenty regions had the highest weekly rent prices across the country as of December 2024, with the Southland region recording the lowest rent prices per week.

The house price to income ratio in Sweden in the first quarter of 2024 has declined notably since its peak in 2022. The house price to income ratio is calculated by dividing nominal house prices by nominal disposable income per head, with 2015 set as a base year when the index amounted to 100. Sweden's index score in the first quarter of 2024 amounted to ****, which means that income growth has outpaced house price growth by *** percent since 2015. This was lower than the average house price to income reatio in the Euro area 16.

Approximately 42.5 percent of residents in renter-occupied housing units in the United States paid gross rent which exceeded 35 percent of their income in 2023. In comparison, about 12.3 percent paid less than 15 percent of their gross household income.

Buenos Aires, Argentina, was the least affordable city in South America in the first half of 2022 to buy an apartment. The ratio measures the number of years needed for a two-earner household where one person works full time and one person works half-time to buy a 90-square meter apartment. It assumes the property has the average square meter price for the city and that home buyers earn the average net salary. Montevideo, Uruguay, was one of the most affordable cities, where it took about nine years to buy an apartment.

The average agreed rent for new tenancies in the UK ranged from *** British pounds to ***** British pounds, depending on the region. On average, renters outside of London paid ***** British pounds, whereas in London, this figure amounted to ***** British pounds. Rents have been on the rise for many years, but the period after the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this trend. Since 2015, the average rent in the UK increased by about ** percent, with about half of that gain achieved in the period after the pandemic. Why have UK rents increased so much? One of the main reasons driving up rental prices is the declining affordability of homeownership. Historically, house prices grew faster than rents, making renting more financially feasible than buying. In 2022, when the house price to rent ratio index peaked, house prices had outgrown rents by nearly ** percent since 2015. As house prices peaked in 2022, home buying slowed, exacerbating demand for rental properties and leading to soaring rental prices. How expensive is too expensive? Although there is no official requirement about the proportion of income spent on rent for it to be considered affordable, a popular rule is that rent should not exceed more than ** percent of income. In 2024, most renters in the UK exceeded that threshold, with the southern regions significantly more likely to spend upward of ** percent of their income on rent. Rental affordability has sparked a move away from the capital to other regions in the UK, such as the South East (Brighton and Southampton), the West Midlands (Birmingham) and the North West (Liverpool, Manchester, Blackpool and Preston).

The house price ratio in Canada peaked in the second quarter of 2022, followed by three quarters of decline and a slight rebound in 2023. The ratio 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. Canada's index score in the third quarter of 2024 amounted to *****, which means that house price growth has outpaced income growth by almost ** percent since 2015. Canadian home prices are fallingAfter several years of steady increase, Canadian house prices were forecast to fall slightly in 2023. This was also the case in British Columbia, which has consistently been the most expensive province for housing. This is likely because Vancouver, Canada's most expensive city, is located there. Canadian incomes on the riseIncomes in Canada have steadily risen since 2000 and show no signs of slowing down in the near future. This should improve housing affordability, as long as home price growth slows down.

Rent prices per square meter in the largest Dutch cities have been on an upward trend after a slight decline in 2020. Amsterdam remained the most expensive city to live in, averaging a monthly rent of 27.6 euros per square meter for residential real estate in the private rental sector. Monthly rents in Utrecht were around six euros cheaper per square meter. Both cities were above the average rent price of residential property in the Netherlands overall, whereas Rotterdam and The Hague were slightly below that. Buying versus renting, what do the Dutch prefer? The Netherlands is one of Europe’s leading countries when it comes to homeownership, having funded this with a mortgage. In 2023, around 60 percent of people living in the Netherlands were homeowners with a mortgage. This is because Dutch homeowners were able to for many years to deduct interest paid from pre-tax income (a system known in the Netherlands as hypotheekrenteaftrek). This resulted in the Netherlands having one of the largest mortgage debts across the European continent. Total mortgage debt of Dutch households reached a value of approximately 803 billion euros in 2023. Is the Dutch housing market overheating? There are several indicators for the Netherlands that allow to investigate whether the housing market is overheating or not. House price indices corrected for inflation in the Netherlands suggest, for example, that prices have declined since 2022. The Netherlands’ house-price-to-rent-ratio, on the other hand, has exceeded the pre-crisis level in 2019. These figures, however, are believed to be significantly higher for cities like Amsterdam, as it was suggested for a long time that the prices of owner-occupied houses were increasing faster than rents in the private rental sector.

What is the average price of residential property in the Netherlands? In the third quarter of 2024, a single-family home cost approximately 434,000 euros. There were large differences between the Dutch provinces, however. Single-family homes were most expensive in the central province of Utrecht with an average price of 731,000 euros, whereas a similar house in Groningen had an average price tag of 384,000 euros. Overall, the average price a private individual would pay when buying any type of existing residential property (such as single-family homes but also, for example, an apartment) was approximately 416,000 euros in 2023. Do the Dutch prefer to buy or to rent a house? The Netherlands had a slightly higher homeownership rate (the share of owner-occupied dwellings of all homes) in 2023 than other countries in Northwestern Europe. About 70 percent of all Dutch houses were owned, whereas this percentage was lower in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. This is an effect of past developments: the price to rent ratio (the development of the nominal purchase price of a house divided by the annual rent of a similar place with 2015 as a base year) shows that the gap between house prices and rents has continuously widened in recent years. Despite a slight decline in the ratio due to slowing house price growth and accelerating rental growth, in 2023, the cost of buying a home had grown significantly faster relative to the cost of renting. Mortgages in the Netherlands Additionally, the Netherlands has one of the highest mortgage debts among private individuals in Europe. In 2024, total debt exceeded 839 billion euros. This has a political background, as the Dutch tax system allowed homeowners for many years to deduct interest paid on mortgage from pre-tax income for a maximum period of thirty years, essentially allowing for income support for homeowners. In the Netherlands, this system is known as hypotheekrenteaftrek. Note that since 2014, the Dutch government is slowly scaling this down, with a planned acceleration from 2020 onwards.

Stockholm was the city with the most expensive apartments in Sweden in 2024. An apartment in Stockholm cost approximately 7,700 euros per square meter as of the first quarter of the year, while in Gothenburg, the average price was roughly 4,700 euros per square meter. Malmö was most affordable, with an average price of 2,750 euros per square meter. In Sweden, about 65 percent of the population lives in an owner-occupied home. How do prices in Sweden compare to the rest of Europe? The Swedish capital ranked among the 10 most expensive cities in Europe for buying an apartment in 2024. Becoming the owner of an apartment in Stockholm was slightly more affordable than in Amsterdam, but slightly more expensive than in Innsbruck, Frankfurt and Oslo. Is housing in Sweden affordable? The growth of house prices in Sweden slowed down in 2022, allowing incomes to catch up and affordability, as measured by the house price-to-income ratio, to improve. Generally, Sweden has a better housing affordability than most OECD countries that report the indicator.