Property prices compared: 30 European cities, Q3 2026

You have a budget and an open mind about where in Europe to put it, but every portal quotes a different currency and a different typical flat, so Paris and Kraków never line up. The one figure that survives a border is the asking price per square metre. Below are 30 of Europe's biggest apartment markets ranked on it, cheapest to dearest, from live Seeki.eu listings on 11 August 2026, so you can see where your money goes furthest.

Last reviewed: 2026-08-11. All prices are median asking prices from live for-sale apartment listings; methodology and sources are at the foot of this article.

How do property prices compare across European cities?

Here are 30 large European apartment markets ranked by median asking price per square metre, cheapest to dearest, for flats for sale. Each figure is the median advertised price divided by floor area, in euros, so a city inside the eurozone and one outside it compare on the same basis. No national portal can print this table: each holds one country's listings, so a live cross-border ranking exists only where the homes sit together on one portal, and that is exactly what Seeki.eu was built to be. Every figure below was re-derived from live listings on 11 August 2026. The final column shows how deep the sample is: Deep is roughly 5,000 or more live apartment listings, Broad about 2,000 to 5,000, and Moderate several hundred to about 2,000.

City	Country	Median asking €/m²	Sample
Łódź	Poland	€2,201	Broad
Leipzig	Germany	€3,088	Moderate
Wrocław	Poland	€3,102	Broad
Antwerp	Belgium	€3,281	Broad
València	Spain	€3,296	Broad
Naples	Italy	€3,666	Moderate
Košice	Slovakia	€3,671	Moderate
Kraków	Poland	€3,690	Broad
Budapest	Hungary	€3,723	Broad
Brussels	Belgium	€3,866	Moderate
Warsaw	Poland	€4,077	Deep
Marseille	France	€4,400	Broad
Bratislava	Slovakia	€4,415	Broad
Rome	Italy	€4,431	Moderate
Porto	Portugal	€4,513	Broad
Graz	Austria	€4,703	Broad
Rotterdam	Netherlands	€4,885	Moderate
Barcelona	Spain	€4,985	Deep
Brno	Czechia	€5,465	Moderate
Berlin	Germany	€5,517	Broad
Lyon	France	€5,607	Moderate
Milan	Italy	€5,727	Moderate
Madrid	Spain	€5,799	Deep
Lisbon	Portugal	€6,399	Broad
Vienna	Austria	€6,548	Deep
Hamburg	Germany	€6,600	Moderate
Prague	Czechia	€6,953	Deep
Amsterdam	Netherlands	€8,163	Deep
Munich	Germany	€8,607	Moderate
Paris	France	€10,750	Broad

The pattern is regional before it is national. The cheap end mixes Polish cities with second-tier Western markets: Łódź, Leipzig, Wrocław, Antwerp and València all sit below €3,300/m². The dear end is a short list of high-income capitals, with Paris alone more than double the 30-city median. Most cities cluster in the €3,600 to €6,700 band, so the endpoints are the exceptions, not the rule.

Which European cities are cheapest, and which are most expensive?

The cheapest major market here is Łódź at €2,201/m², and the dearest is Paris at €10,750/m². That near-fivefold gap is the number to keep: a square metre of Paris buys almost five in Łódź.

If your budget is fixed and your city is not, the cheap tier is where it stretches. Poland supplies three of the ten cheapest cities (Łódź, Wrocław and Kraków), joined by Leipzig in the former East Germany, Antwerp and Brussels in Belgium, València in Spain, Naples in Italy, Košice in eastern Slovakia and Budapest in Hungary. These are large, liquid markets, so the low prices reflect local income levels, not a shortage of listings.

The expensive tier is shorter and richer. Paris, Munich (€8,607) and Amsterdam (€8,163) form a top three that no other city comes near, with Prague (€6,953), Hamburg (€6,600), Vienna (€6,548) and Lisbon (€6,399) behind them. Prague is the surprise: the priciest capital in Central Europe by asking €/m², dearer than Berlin, Madrid or Rome.

What does €250,000 buy in each city?

Fix the budget instead of the city and the spread turns from euros into floor space. The same €250,000 buys a family apartment in the cheapest markets and a studio in the dearest, purely on the price-per-square-metre gap.

Budget €250,000 in	Median asking €/m²	Floor area it buys
Łódź, Poland	€2,201	114 m²
Warsaw, Poland	€4,077	61 m²
30-city median	€4,608	54 m²
Madrid, Spain	€5,799	43 m²
Prague, Czechia	€6,953	36 m²
Paris, France	€10,750	23 m²

A quarter of a million euros is a three-bed in Łódź, a comfortable two-bed in Warsaw, a mid-sized one-bed at the European median, and a compact studio in Paris. This is why buyers who fix a budget and compare where it stretches furthest tend to land further east and south than they first pictured.

How do capital cities compare to second cities?

Capitals usually cost more per square metre than their country's largest second city, but the premium is far from universal. Across this set the median capital asks €5,799/m² against €4,885/m² for the median second city, a gap of about a fifth. The table pairs each capital with the largest other city from the ranking above.

Country	Capital €/m²	Second city €/m²	Difference
France	Paris €10,750	Lyon €5,607	+92%
Netherlands	Amsterdam €8,163	Rotterdam €4,885	+67%
Portugal	Lisbon €6,399	Porto €4,513	+42%
Austria	Vienna €6,548	Graz €4,703	+39%
Czechia	Prague €6,953	Brno €5,465	+27%
Slovakia	Bratislava €4,415	Košice €3,671	+20%
Belgium	Brussels €3,866	Antwerp €3,281	+18%
Spain	Madrid €5,799	Barcelona €4,985	+16%
Poland	Warsaw €4,077	Kraków €3,690	+10%
Italy	Rome €4,431	Milan €5,727	−23%
Germany	Berlin €5,517	Munich €8,607	−36%

France is the extreme: Paris asks nearly double Lyon. Two big economies invert the rule. Munich runs more than half as much again as Berlin, whose capital prices still reflect low incomes and rent regulation rather than scarcity. Milan trades above Rome as Italy's financial centre. So "buy in the capital for the priciest address" holds in most markets and breaks where the second city is the economic engine.

Where are European house prices rising fastest?

Today's price level and next year's direction are different questions. According to the Eurostat House Price Index, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain are climbing fastest, each up more than 12% year on year in the first quarter of 2026, while Germany and France are close to flat. That index (series PRC_HPI_Q) is the EU's official quarterly measure built from completed transactions rather than adverts, so it reads the direction of a national market over time, not one city's price against another. Q1 2026 was still the most recent quarter Eurostat had published when this article was reviewed on 11 August 2026.

Country	House Price Index, year on year (Q1 2026)
Portugal	+17.8%
Slovakia	+14.4%
Spain	+12.8%
Czechia	+10.0%
Poland	+5.9%
Italy	+5.2%
Netherlands	+5.2%
Austria	+4.2%
Germany	+1.4%
France	+0.1%

Read the two together. Portugal and Spain are rising hardest yet sit mid-table on asking €/m², so momentum, not a high starting point, is what marks them out for 2026. Germany's near-flat national index sits under some of the highest city prices on the list, a market that ran up years ago and has since cooled. The ranked table is where prices are today; the index is where they are heading.

What these asking-price figures can and cannot tell you

These medians are current and comparable, but they are asking prices, and that line matters. What they can tell you is the middle of what sellers are advertising right now for apartments in each city, converted to one currency, refreshed as new listings appear. That makes them a fair same-day screen for comparing cities and roughly sizing what a budget buys.

What they cannot tell you is the price a deal actually closes at. Advertised prices typically run a few per cent above the agreed figure, and the gap widens in slower markets. For achieved prices the source is official registers: the Eurostat index above, plus national land-registry and notary series, all built from signed transactions but published a quarter or two late and only national, never street-level. Countries also measure floor area differently, so any cross-border €/m² carries a margin no single dataset removes.

The honest use is orientation. When you need a legally exact number, for a mortgage, a probate valuation or a court, that is a job for registered comparables and a local surveyor, work that happens off any portal. For choosing which cities to shortlist and roughly sizing a budget, the table above is the faster tool, and Seeki.eu turns the same local median €/m² into a guide price for a specific flat, adjusting for size and condition, which is a starting estimate rather than a formal appraisal.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I compare property prices between European cities?

Use price per square metre, the one measure that holds across borders and property sizes. The ranked table above lines up 30 large cities on median asking €/m² from live listings, and on Seeki.eu each country has a price-per-m² page with its own city and regional breakdown. Comparing on €/m² rather than headline price stops a market's typical apartment size from misleading you.

Which is the cheapest major European city to buy an apartment?

Among the 30 large markets here, Łódź in Poland is the cheapest at a median asking €2,201/m² on 11 August 2026, ahead of Leipzig in Germany (€3,088) and Wrocław (€3,102). Poland supplies three of the ten cheapest cities. These are sizeable, liquid markets rather than thin ones, so the low prices reflect income levels, not a shortage of listings.

What is the average price per square metre in Europe?

There is no single European average, because prices span nearly five times from the cheapest city to the dearest. Across these 30 large apartment markets the median is €4,608/m² as of 11 August 2026, with most cities falling between about €3,600 and €6,700. The number to carry is the spread: Paris at €10,750/m² sits almost five times above Łódź at €2,201/m².

Are these asking prices or actual sale prices?

Asking prices. Every figure is the median advertised price for a live for-sale apartment, not the price a sale eventually closes at. Achieved prices usually run a little below asking, and the gap is wider in slower markets. For completed-transaction figures, use the Eurostat House Price Index or national land-registry data, which are more accurate on achieved prices but lag by a quarter or more.

Where are European property prices rising the fastest?

By the Eurostat House Price Index for the first quarter of 2026, Portugal led at +17.8% year on year, followed by Slovakia (+14.4%), Spain (+12.8%) and Czechia (+10.0%). Germany (+1.4%) and France (+0.1%) were close to flat. That index tracks completed transactions nationally, so it shows the direction of a whole market rather than the level in any single city.

Do capital cities always cost more than second cities?

Usually, but not always. Across this set the median capital asks about a fifth more per square metre than the median second city, and Paris asks nearly double Lyon. The rule reverses in two large economies: Munich is more than half as much again as Berlin, and Milan trades above Rome. Where the second city is the country's financial or industrial hub, it can out-price the capital.

Methodology

Median asking prices are the median advertised price per square metre for currently listed for-sale apartments on Seeki.eu in each city, converted to euros so cities compare on a like-for-like basis. Only published listings carrying both a price and a floor area are counted, and the €/m² is the advertised price divided by that floor area. Medians are used because they resist outliers better than averages. The 30 cities are large apartment markets spread evenly across the countries Seeki.eu covers, from Iberia and Italy through France and the Low Countries to Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary. The 30-city median is the median of the per-city medians. Sample depth in the table reflects the number of live apartment listings behind each figure. Figures are asking prices from live listings, not achieved or registered sale prices, and update as listings change. Every city figure in this article was re-derived from live listings on 11 August 2026, replacing the July 2026 snapshot the article first carried.

House Price Index figures are the year-on-year change in the Eurostat House Price Index (PRC_HPI_Q, total dwellings) for the first quarter of 2026, still the latest quarter published as of 11 August 2026. Eurostat had flagged its Austrian, French, German, Italian and Dutch Q1 2026 readings as provisional at that point. Belgium and Hungary are outside the Eurostat series tracked here and are omitted from that table. This article is orientation, not a formal valuation or investment advice.

To compare per-square-metre prices directly, see the Europe price-per-m² hub or a single market such as the Polish price-per-m² page or the Czech price-per-m² page. For two related reads, see where buy-to-let pays across Europe and the true cost of buying a home in Europe.

Sources

• Seeki.eu listings data (first-party): median advertised €/m² for published for-sale apartments in each of the 30 cities, re-derived on 11 August 2026. Every city figure, the 30-city median, the €250,000 floor areas and the capital-versus-second-city comparison come from this dataset.
• Eurostat, House Price Index (series PRC_HPI_Q, total dwellings), year-on-year change for Q1 2026, the quarter current as of 11 August 2026. Source of every national growth figure in this article.
• National land registries and notary transaction series, referenced as the authority for achieved rather than advertised prices. No figure in this article is drawn from them.