House prices in Europe continue to rise, outpacing inflation in many countries. Annual increases ranged from 0.6% in Germany to 16.5% in Portugal in the second quarter of 2026.

4 points•andrewstetsenko•about 3 hours ago•2 comments•

2 comments

bell-cotabout 3 hours ago
Notice the article's tone - housing is very much a stock market, where rising prices are good, higher is better, and hot companies (make that housing markets) are bandwagons for the savvy well-to-do to make sure they own part of.

Vs., say, essential infrastructure that every human needs in order to live.

TacticalCoderabout 3 hours ago
> Notice the article's tone - housing is very much a stock market, where rising prices are good, higher is better, and hot companies ...

Don't forget that in the EU governments love the revenues from real-estate: higher real estate means the, say, 12% that goes to the state when an apartment our house changes hand is juicier.

And higher real-estate price means higher recurring yearly taxes on real-estate/land.

Also high real-estate price means inheritance taxes of 30% are very juicy on real-estate when someone dies for the government.

Governments have zero concerns for the essential structure needed for people to live but they do have a lot of love for the huge amounts that comes into their ever deeper pockets.

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