Moreover, the situation regarding prices for the purchase of real estate is worse than with rental rates. According to Eurostat, which studied the state of the European housing market from 2007 to the final quarter of 2019, rental rates in the EU increased by 20.3%, and housing prices by 18.7%. Greece, on the other hand, showed the most significant decline in residential property prices over the same period – by 35.6%. As for rental rates, Greece became the only EU country where there was a decline over the same period of time – by 17.5%. Where did housing prices increase the most? During the period in question, housing prices went up in Austria (+ 88.4%), Luxembourg (+ 84.8%) and Sweden (+ 80.6%). Where have rental prices increased the most? The most rapidly growing rental rates are in Lithuania (+ 101.2%), Czech Republic (+79.3%) and Hungary (+70.8%). However, while residential real estate in the EU increased by only 4.7% in 2019, according to the Central Bank apartment prices in Greece rose by 7.2% over the past year. This is the second year in a row that apartments in the country have become more expensive. In 2018, there was an increase of 1.8%.