House prices vary widely in the United Kingdom (UK), but housing in certain cities and counties is substantially pricier than in others. Surrey, for example, concentrated four of the most expensive towns to buy a home, including Virginia Water, Cobham, and Esher. With an average house price of over *********** British pounds as of June 2024, housing in these towns cost roughly **** times the national average. How did house prices change since the COVID-19 pandemic? Since the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, demand for housing has been especially high, causing house prices to soar. Among major UK cities, the house price increase was most prominent in Belfast, where it rose by *** percent in 2024. According to the UK House Price Index, the average annual house price increase on a national level was even higher. How long does it take to sell a house? With the demand for housing going strong and inventory running low, aspiring homeowners need to act faster than ever when making an offer on a home. The average number of days on market has continued shortening since the start of 2021 and was a little over a month as of October 2021. Surprisingly, selling a property took the longest in the UK’s most competitive market - London.

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 UK housing market continued to show significant regional variations in 2025, with London maintaining its position as the most expensive city for homebuyers. The average house price in the capital stood at ******* British pounds in February, nearly double the national average. However, the market dynamics are shifting, with London experiencing only a modest *** percent annual increase, while other cities like Belfast and Liverpool saw more substantial growth of over **** percent respectively. Affordability challenges and market slowdown Despite the continued price growth in many cities, the UK housing market is facing headwinds. The affordability of mortgage repayments has become the biggest barrier to property purchases, with the majority of the respondents in a recent survey citing it as their main challenge. Moreover, a rising share of Brits have reported affordability as a challenge since 2021, reflecting the impact of rising house prices and higher mortgage rates. The market slowdown is evident in the declining housing transaction volumes, which have plummeted since 2021. European context The stark price differences are mirrored in the broader European context. While London boasts some of the highest property prices among European cities, a comparison of the average transaction price for new homes in different European countries shows a different picture. In 2023, the highest prices were found in Austria, Germany, and France.

London was the most expensive city for a pint of beer in the United Kingdom in 2021, where a pint of beer at a pub cost on average **** British pounds in 2021. Edinburgh and Birmingham came in second and third place, where a pub beer cost on average **** pounds.

House prices in England have increased notably in the last 10 years, despite a slight decline in 2023. In December 2024, London retained its position as the most expensive regional market, with the average house price at ******* British pounds. According to the UK regional house price index, Northern Ireland saw the highest increase in house prices since 2023.

According to a mid-2024 index, *********** was the most expensive country to live in Europe, with an index score of ****.******** followed in the second place with around ** points less.

The borough with the highest property prices in London, Kensington and Chelsea, had an average price for a flat exceeding *** million British pounds. London is the most populous metropolitan area in the UK, and living in it comes with a price tag. Unsurprisingly, the most expensive boroughs in terms of real estate prices are located in the heart of the metropolis: Kensington and Chelsea, the City of Westminster, and the City of London. In Kensington and Chelsea, home to several museums such as the Natural History Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Science Museum, as well as galleries and theaters, the average price of apartments was over a million British pounds. How have residential property prices developed in recent years? The average house price in England have risen notably over the past decade, despite a slight decline in 2023. While London continues to be the hottest market in the UK, price growth in the capital has moderated. Conversely, prices in the more affordable cities, such as Belfast and Liverpool, have started to rise at a faster pace. Are residential property prices in London expected to grow in the future? Despite property prices declining in 2024, the market is forecast to continue to grow in the next five years, according to a October 2024 forecast. Some of the reasons for this are the robust demand for housing, the chronic shortage of residential properties, and the anticipated decline in mortgage interest rates.

In the presented European countries, the homeownership rate extended from 42.6 percent in Switzerland to as much as 95.9 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 20 euro area countries stood at 64.5 percent in 2024. Average cost of housing Countries with lower homeownership rates tend to have higher house prices. In 2024, 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 2024, European countries completed between one and six housing units per 1,000 citizens, with Ireland, Poland, and Denmark responsible for 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.

London remained the most expensive city for hotel accommodations in the United Kingdom, with an average nightly rate of *** British pounds in 2024. This figure stood in stark contrast to Milton Keynes, where travelers found rooms for less than half that price at ** British pounds per night. How expensive is accommodation in the United Kingdom? While London was highest on the list for hotel room prices, it did not command the highest average nightly Airbnb rates in the United Kingdom. Edinburgh topped the list with an average price of *** British pounds per night, significantly higher than London's *** British pounds. Interestingly, even smaller UK cities like St Andrews showed competitive nightly hotel rates among selected small cities in the United Kingdom, reaching *** British pounds per night in April 2024. Occupancy rates and accommodation preferences Despite high prices in some areas, the UK’s hotel industry in the country has thrived in recent years. In May 2024, the monthly hotel occupancy rate in the United Kingdom reached ** percent, surpassing levels seen in the previous four years. Edinburgh, the second most expensive city for hotels, saw ** percent of its visitors choosing hotels, motels, or inns as their preferred accommodation type in Edinburgh in 2023. The Scottish capital's popularity was further evidenced by comparing the annual average room occupancy rate of hotels in Scotland, with its region's nearly ** percent in 2024, outperforming even Greater Glasgow's robust ** percent

According to the Hurun Global Rich List 2025, the United States housed the highest number of billionaires worldwide in 2025. In detail, there were *** billionaires living in the United States as of January that year. By comparison, *** billionaires resided in China. India, the United Kingdom, and Germany were also the homes of a significant number of billionaires that year. United States has regained its first place As the founder and exporter of consumer capitalism, it is no surprise that the United States is home to a large number of billionaires. Although China had briefly overtaken the U.S. recently, the United States has reclaimed its position as the country with the most billionaires in the world. Moreover, North America leads the way in terms of the highest number of ultra high net worth individuals – those with a net worth of more than ***** million U.S. dollars. The prominence of Europe and North America is a reflection of the higher degree of economic development in those states. However, this may also change as China and other emerging economies continue developing. Female billionaires Moreover, the small proportion of female billionaires does little to counter critics claiming the global economy is dominated by an elite comprised mainly of men. On the list of the richest people in the world, only *** were women. Moreover, recent political discourse has put a great amount of attention on the wealth held by the super-rich, with the wealth distribution of the global population being heavily unequal.

As of 2025, Zurich, Geneva, and London had some of the highest construction costs in Europe, with a price of ***** and ******U.S. dollars per square meter, respectively. Dublin was the third city at ***** U.S. dollars per square meter, closely followed by Munich and Dublin. When it comes to the construction cost of education buildings in the UK, Glasgow was more expensive than London. However, this is an exception, as generally, London is the most expensive city to build in the UK.

The cost of 'big shed' prime industrial warehouse space per square foot in varied greatly across different cities in the United Kingdom (UK) as of January 2022. The most expensive market was Greenford, London, at ** British pounds per square foot, while the least expensive was Teesside, Northern Ireland, at **** British pounds. Furthermore, the price per square foot of larger (100+ thousand square foot) industrial warehousing was less expensive that that of smaller warehousing. Other factors that could affect pricing included location, proximity to major road systems, key population areas, price of developing land and staff costs.

What is the average price of residential property in the Netherlands? In the third quarter of 2025, a single-family home cost approximately 568,000 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 778,000 euros, whereas a similar house in Zeeland had an average price tag of 390,000 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 2024 than other countries in Northwestern Europe. About 69 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 2025, total debt exceeded 868 billion euros. This has a political background, as the Dutch tax system allowed homeowners for many years to deduct interest paid on mortgages 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 has been slowly scaling this down, with a planned acceleration from 2020 onwards.

More than **** of London's boroughs witnessed an annual decrease in residential property prices as of June 2024. The City of Westminster, one of the most expensive areas for housing in London, experienced the greatest decline in prices, amounting to ** percent year-on-year. In Bexley, the borough with the highest increase, the cost of buying a residential property rose by *** percent. The City of Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, and the City of London, which happen to be

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).

In 2024, ****** was still the most expensive UK city for office construction. This was true at least for the cities included in the list, and it applies to prestige and A-Grade offices. Both A-Grade and prestige offices in London were more expensive than any type of office construction in Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, or Leeds. After London, Cambridge and Oxford are also some of the other UK cities with the highest house prices in 2023. Office rents in London Not only did London prove to have high building costs, rents for prime offices were equally high, with the West End core as the most expensive districts in the city. The area to the North of Buckingham Palace is known for its exclusive townhouses largely owned by the foreign elite and upscale hotels and restaurants. Stratford and the rest of the Docklands were the cheapest districts in London. Office investments in the UK In the last quarter of 2023, the value of office investments in London increased slightly in comparison to previous quarters. Investments in the City and Southbank, however, dropped in value. The volume of investment in commercial real estate in the UK fluctuated a lot in the past months, with some years showing high volumes of investment in office real estate, and other months where those values fell rapidly.

Renting an apartment in Cambridge cost on average ***** British pounds per month in July 2025. This made it one of the most expensive cities for renters in the UK after London. In London region, the average rent amounted to ***** British pounds. According to the source, this figure shows the asking rent, adjusted for achieved rents. A comparison of the rent prices of different London boroughs shows that costs may vary by several hundred and even over a thousand British pounds. Looking at the regional prices, Northern Ireland, Wales, and the Northeast emerged as the regions with the most affordable rents.

To obtain a mortgage, first-time homebuyers in the UK need to save a deposit amounting to about ** percent of the property purchase price. The higher the property value and the loan amount, the higher the deposit. In 2024, the average first-time buyer deposit in the UK was about ****** British pounds, but in the most expensive region, Greater London, the deposit amount was more than double. The share of the deposit was also much higher than in other regions in the UK. How has the house price for first-time buyers changed over time? Housing bought by first-time buyers has become increasingly pricier since 2000, making it harder for renters to get on the property ladder. By 2024, the average house price had tripled. The price also varied in different regions, with the North East being the least expensive and Greater London – the most expensive. Which are the most affordable areas for first-time buyers? While housing in certain areas can be pricy, this does not necessarily make it unaffordable, as the standard of living may also be higher. In 2020, the most affordable towns for first-time buyers were found in the North West region (Burnley) and Scotland (East Ayshire, North Ayshire, Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire).

In the first quarter of 2025, London West End - Bond Street was the most expensive location for prime high street rents in the UK, with prices reaching 2,500 British pounds per square foot. The West End was ranked ahead of London City, which came in third. In Manchester, the annual costs of rental per square foot of prime retail real estate amounted to 235 British pounds. Retail warehouses Retail warehouses typically range from 50,000 to hundreds of thousands of square feet. They are used for keeping and distributing inventory. Retail warehouses include loading docks, truck doors and large parking lots; also, they may contain a limited amount of office space. Prime retail warehouse properties belong to the wider category of industrial property, along with other real estate types, such as distribution buildings, showroom facilities, manufacturing buildings, cold storage facilities, telecom or data hosting centers, "flex" buildings denoting more than one industrial or commercial facility housed in the same building, and finally R&D buildings. Prime yields of high street retail across Europe Retail real estate prime yields in Europe were the lowest in Zurich, Switzerland, and the highest in Bucharest, Romania in 2025. As could be expected, larger cities in Europe tended to produce lower yields, due to the lower risk associated with these markets. Locations with lower yields tend to have steady occupancy rates and rental growth.

Renting an office space in the UK was the most expensive in London West End in 2025. In the first quarter of the year, the square foot cost of a prime office space cost 170 British pounds. Conversely, Belfast was the most affordable of the 18 markets ranked, at 26 British pounds per square foot.