Bucharest, November 25, 2025 – RBJ – An interactive publication by the European Commission regarding the state of housing in the Union shows surprising facts for those who like fake news. For example, many will be surprised that Romanians do the best when it comes to owning or not owning their own home. According to Eurostat, Romania leads the way in terms of home ownership. Over 95% of Romanians own their homes.
Even more interesting is that almost 63% of Romanians own houses, not apartments in a condominium.
Let’s let the Eurostat figures do the talking.
The distribution of population by tenure status (owner or tenant) differs significantly among the EU countries. In 2023, 69% of the population living in EU households, owned their home, while the remaining 31% lived in rented housing. The highest shares of ownership were observed in Romania (96% of the population lived in a household owning their home), Slovakia (94%), Croatia and Hungary (both 91%).
In all EU countries, except Germany, owning was more common. In Germany, renting was somewhat more usual with 52% of the population being tenants. Austria (46%) and Denmark (40%) followed.
The distribution of population by type of housing (house, flat or other) differs among the EU countries. It also varies depending on whether you live in a city, town or suburb, or rural area.
In the EU in 2023, 51.7% of the population lived in a house, while 47.7% lived in a flat (and 0.6% lived in other accommodation, such as houseboats and vans). Houses are most common in two thirds of the EU countries. Ireland (90%) recorded the highest share of the population living in a house, followed by the Netherlands (79%), Belgium and Croatia (both 77%). It should be noted that this includes terraced houses. Romania is in 10th place, ahead of Poland, Bulgaria, Czechia, etc. The highest shares for flats were observed in Spain (66%), Latvia (65%, 2021 data), Malta (63%) and Germany (61%).
In cities, 72% of the EU population lived in a flat and 27% in a house. For towns and suburbs, the proportions were 56% of people living in a house and 43% in a flat, while in rural areas 82% of the population lived in a house and only 17% in a flat.
The size of housing can be measured as the average number of rooms per person: there were on average 1.6 rooms per person in the EU in 2023. Among the EU countries, the largest number was recorded in Luxembourg and Malta (2.2 rooms per person), followed by Belgium and the Netherlands (2.1 rooms). At the other end of the scale were Poland (1.1 rooms) and Croatia, Latvia (2021 data), Romania and Slovakia (all with 1.2 rooms on average per person).
