International House Trends

House prices in the UK have risen more rapidly than every country in the eurozone except Spain over the past five years, according to new research by Halifax. Since 2001, house prices in the UK have risen 90 percent, compared with a 40 percent increase for the eurozone as a whole over the same period. Spain is the only country with higher house price growth than the UK in the past five years, with an increase of 100 percent.

In the past year, Belgium experienced the largest rise in house prices of 18 percent, followed by France at 15 percent and Spain at 14 percent. The UK had the fourth-largest increase of 13 percent.

Of the 12 eurozone members included in this analysis, Germany is the only country to have experienced a fall in house prices, with a fall of 5 percent over the past five years.

Despite rising faster than the UK over the past five years, house prices in Spain are lower. The average price in Spain stood at £150,200 at the end of 2006, compared with an average of £187,100 in the UK. The average house price in Ireland (£209,300) and the Netherlands (£190,900) is higher than in the UK

The owner-occupation rate in the UK is currently around 70 percent. Spain has a significantly higher owner-occupation rate of 82 percent, whereas the Netherlands has a lower owner-occupation rate of 55 percent. In Germany, the rate is even lower at 45 percent.

Outside the eurozone, house price growth in the UK has outperformed Australia, Canada and the United States over the past one, two and five years. The US is the only one of these countries to have recorded a fall in house prices, with a 1.3 percent decline in the past year.

Along with faster growth, the UK also has a higher average house price than Australia, Canada and the US.