Tenants Under Pressure from New Wave of Price Hikes: Which Countries Saw Record Rent Increases?

Eurostat data show that housing rents in the European Union rose by an average of 3% in the second quarter of 2026 compared with the same period last year.

Rents in Europe continue to rise, and some countries are more affected by this trend than others. According to Eurostat data, rents paid for housing increased by three percent between the second quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2026 in the European Union. Rent inflation rate ranged from zero percent in Finland to 43.5 percent in Romania, followed by Croatia with an increase of 40.1 percent.

In the same period, general inflation was 9.5% in Romania and 4.8% in Croatia. Adjusted for general inflation, real rent growth exceeded 30% in both countries. Slovenia recorded the third highest growth rate in the EU with rents increasing by 10%. The real increase in rent in this country, after adjusting for inflation, was a little more than 6%.

The role of public housing in increasing rents

Eurostat data providers in these countries explained the reasons for the increase in rents and addressed the role of public housing. The Romanian government has identified the increase in rents set by government institutions as the main factor in this process. This type of rent means the price of living in units that are publicly or privately owned by the government or administrative and territorial units.

Adriana M. Suita from the University of Glasgow said: The share of public rental housing in the total number of residential units in the country is very small. The rent of these units is much lower than the rent in the private sector, and even tripling it will not have much effect on the average rent. If, after adjusting for inflation and taking into account the calculation method of Eurostat and the informal sector of the market, a significant increase in rent is still observed, the entry of new buildings or completely renovated properties into the market may be one of the factors of this increase.

The data provider stated: In Croatia, the sharp increase in rent was caused by the decision of the local authorities of Zagreb, the capital of this country, to increase the rent of some social housing units.

Gojko Bezvan, a professor at the University of Zagreb, said: A significant part of the housing stock in Croatia has turned into financial assets. In this country, investing in apartments and properties related to tourism is one of the main forms of savings. As a result, many apartments located in new buildings are not purchased for residential purposes and often remain empty.

He added: Croatia has imposed a tax on empty apartments from 2025. During the years 2025 and 2026, the number of residential rental contracts registered at the tax office increased dramatically. As a result, more and more high-quality residential units entered the rental market in major cities, with much higher than average rental rates.

Türkiye recorded the highest rent inflation

Including EU candidate countries and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) member countries, Türkiye recorded the highest rate of rent inflation. The rent in this country increased by 49.6% between the second quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2026.

However, unlike Romania and Croatia, the increase in rents in Türkiye was not sudden and severe, but rather continued gradually. The general inflation in Turkey was also more than 30% during the same period, so the real increase in rent in this country was lower than in Romania and Croatia.

Rents in Serbia also increased by 12.5%. This rate was 9.9% in Bulgaria, 9.2% in North Macedonia, 8.6% in Iceland, 7.5% in Greece, 6.2% in the Czech Republic, 6% in Albania, 5.3% each in Slovakia and Lithuania, and 5.2% in Portugal.

Limited rent growth in major European economies

Among the four largest economies of the European Union, only Italy, with a 3.5 percent rent growth, exceeded the average of 3 percent of this union. The rent inflation rate was 2.5% in Spain, 2.1% in Germany and 1.6% in France. Adjusted for general inflation, rents in Belgium, Estonia, Finland and Luxembourg also saw no real increase.

Rents in the European Union increased by 2.9% between August 2025 and August 2026. This trend was generally in line with the changes recorded between the second quarter of 2025 and 2026, but in Croatia, the annual increase in rents in August was much lower at 4.3 percent. The reason for this difference was that the rent price index had a sharp jump between July and August 2025, and this increase affected the monthly and quarterly changes.

Intense competition for limited rental housing

Emma Rosser, director of housing market research for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region at JLL said: "In the general statistics of Eurostat about all rental contracts, there is no sharp increase in prices." However, rent growth in new contracts remains high and appears to have accelerated. This trend can be a sign of increasing pressures in the housing market in the future. Intense competition for access to limited rental residential units in European cities causes a significant increase in rents in new contracts.

He added: There is an imbalance between supply and demand throughout Europe, but this situation is more severe in the cities that experience the highest rent growth.

Nora Teller, a researcher at the "Metropolitan" Research Institute in Budapest, also said: "Economic, demographic and supply-side restrictions play a role in increasing rents." Long periods of low interest rates, until a few years ago, boosted borrowing to buy property, but in 2022 the cost of borrowing has risen sharply, prompting first-time homebuyers to turn to the private rental market.

According to the Euronews report, he also noted that the conversion of housing into a financial asset has increased prices. Institutional investors, private equity funds, real estate investment trusts, and buy-to-let property owners increasingly view housing as a financial asset rather than a commodity with a social function.