Housing costs as a share of disposable income show significant regional disparities across Europe, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) “Regions and Cities at a Glance 2024” report. The study reveals that while some regions in Europe bear heavy housing burdens, others manage far lower cost proportions, often within the same country.
Europe has been grappling with a housing and living cost crisis, further exacerbated by record inflation in 2022, the highest in over 40 years. Larger cities and capitals tend to experience greater disparities in housing costs, which disproportionately impact urban residents.
The OECD report uses housing costs as a percentage of disposable income to highlight these disparities. These costs include rent (both actual and imputed), mortgages, utility expenses like water and electricity, and routine household maintenance. On average, OECD households allocate nearly 20% of their disposable income to housing. In 2022, the gap in housing costs between the most and least expensive regions within a single country was about 10 percentage points on average.
In the UK, the disparity was the largest among the 11 European countries analyzed (including nine EU member states, Switzerland, and the UK). UK households spent 16.1% of their disposable income on housing on average. However, in Greater London, this share climbed to 24.4%, a striking 51% above the national average. At the other end of the spectrum, the North of England recorded the lowest proportion at 8.7%, followed by Scotland at 11.3%. The gap between the highest and lowest regions in the UK reached 15.7 percentage points—an astounding 181% difference.
Despite this disparity, the UK also boasts some of the least expensive regions for housing among the countries studied. For example, Scotland and the North of England had substantially lower cost burdens.
In Italy, the average household spent 25% of its disposable income on housing. The Campania region, including Naples, had the highest share at 31.2%, compared to Marche, which recorded the lowest at 17.1%. This difference of 14.1 percentage points marks an 82% gap.
In Spain, the Balearic Islands stood out as the most expensive region, with housing costs consuming 30.4% of disposable income. Galicia, the least expensive region, had a share of 20.3%, creating a gap of 10.1 percentage points. Other high-cost regions included Murcia (30.2%) and Madrid (30%).
Austria also exhibited notable disparities. Vienna had the highest proportion of housing costs at 29.9%, compared to Upper Austria at 22.1%. The national average stood at 24.9%.
Direct quotes from the OECD emphasized the report’s key findings:
“The data provides new insights on the impact on households, highlighting for example the disproportionate impacts that rising housing costs have on urban residents.”
In Switzerland, Lake Geneva emerged as the most expensive region, with households spending 36.3% of their disposable income. This was followed by Ticino at 34.9%. Notably, these two regions also ranked as the most expensive among the 11 European countries in the report.
Other countries showed smaller regional disparities. Slovakia’s Bratislava had the third-highest housing cost share at 33.2%, but the gap between it and the least expensive region was just 3.8 percentage points. Similarly, in Ireland, Estonia, and Sweden, the differences between the most and least expensive regions were under 5 percentage points, although housing costs as a share of disposable income varied significantly.
In some cases, the report reflects data from the most recent available year rather than 2022.
