House prices indicators

Estimates of the over/undervaluation of residential property prices in selected EU countries are based on four different valuation methods: price-to-rent ratio, price-to-income ratio and two model-based methods (for details, see Box 3 in Financial Stability Review , ECB, June 2011 and/or Box 3 in Financial Stability Review, ECB, November 2015).

The residential property price indicator for the euro area is an average of non-harmonised country indicators based on data from national sources. It generally includes new and existing dwellings as well as houses and apartments; however, the coverage varies to some extent across countries. It gives an indication of the broad trend-development of residential property prices in the euro area, but does not have the same accuracy as other euro area statistics.

As of 4 February 2026 onwards, the euro area HICP inflation will undergo major methodological changes, according to the announcement by Eurostat. On the same day, the ECB will also discontinue the current Indices of Consumer Prices - ICP dataset on the ECB Data Portal and replace it with a new HICP dataset that will accurately reflect the methodological changes by Eurostat. For more information about these updates, visit the HICP dataset page. The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for the euro area is published by the European Commission (Eurostat) and generally available from 1996 onwards. Euro area results are obtained by aggregating indices for individual countries. The HICP is broken down following the European classification of individual consumption according to purpose (ECOICOP) and by goods and services special aggregates derived from it. The HICP covers monetary expenditure on final consumption by resident and non-resident households on the economic territory of the euro area. The seasonally adjusted HICP data are compiled by the ECB.