For many young Europeans, owning a home has become a distant dream. Across the continent, the share of people in their twenties and thirties who own their main residence has fallen markedly compared with the generations that came before them. New data from the OECD paints a stark picture of a widening generational divide.
The OECD's report, 'Mapping trends and gaps in household wealth across OECD countries', tracks homeownership rates for people born in different decades. Among 20 EU countries, the trend is clear: each successive cohort since the mid-1970s has been less likely to own a home by the same age. For instance, 60% of those born around 1975 owned a home by age 32. That figure dropped to 58% for the 1980 cohort and to 52% for those born in 1985 – an eight-percentage-point gap in just a decade.
The pattern persists at older ages. By age 36, 65% of the 1970 and 1975 cohorts owned a home, but only 60% of the 1980 cohort had achieved that. Among younger groups, the decline is even more pronounced: by age 29, homeownership fell from 52% for the 1980 cohort to 45% for the 1985 cohort and 41% for the 1990 cohort.
Why are young people locked out?
OECD experts point to a combination of factors. Access to mortgage credit has become more difficult, especially since interest rates began rising in 2021, making borrowing more expensive. House prices have also grown faster than incomes in many countries, while wage growth has been relatively sluggish. This makes it harder for first-time buyers to save for a deposit and qualify for a mortgage.
Another factor is that more young people are pursuing higher education, which delays their entry into the labour market and, consequently, their transition to independent living. As one OECD analyst put it, “Relatively slow wage growth has further reduced affordability, making it more difficult for first-time buyers to accumulate down payments and qualify for mortgages.”
The OECD Employment Outlook 2025 report confirms that the trend has continued in most European countries. Comparing the mid-1990s with the most recent pre-pandemic or 2022/23 data, the share of people in their thirties who own their main residence fell in roughly two-thirds of countries.
Where the decline is steepest
Ireland has seen the largest drop: homeownership among people in their thirties plummeted from 81% in the mid-1990s to just 53% in recent years. Greece followed closely, with a 20-point decline from 78% to 58%. The UK and Spain, two of Europe's largest economies, also recorded significant falls – from 74% to 56% in the UK and from 77% to 60% in Spain.
Jonathan Cribb, deputy director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), explains the UK situation: “The most important barrier is how high house prices are compared to incomes for generations that have reached adulthood since the early 2000s. That's not just about how hard it is to get a deposit together, it's about even with good deposits, people not being able to borrow enough to purchase homes in the area in which they live (or nearby).”
In Spain, J. Antonio Módenes from the Autonomous University of Barcelona points to the collapse of credit expansion after the 2008 financial crash, lower job stability, stricter mortgage lending criteria, and a decline in housing construction. Denmark (13 percentage points), Austria (11) and Luxembourg (10) also saw double-digit falls, while Germany and Switzerland both dropped by 9 points.
Post-socialist exceptions
Not every country followed the downward trend. In Slovakia, homeownership among people in their thirties soared from 38% to 88%, and in Czechia it rose from 36% to 76%. Poland also saw a 20-point increase, from 57% to 77%. These gains are largely a legacy of the post-socialist transition, when state-owned housing was privatised at nominal prices.
Ján Výbošťok, senior researcher at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, explains that before 1989 the state was the almost exclusive owner of the entire housing stock. After the transition, residents were able to buy their flats for a symbolic sum, leading to near-universal homeownership.
The Netherlands also recorded a 9-point rise, though some experts question the OECD figures. Cody Hochstenbach from the University of Amsterdam notes that Dutch homeownership among young adults has actually fallen since the global financial crisis, citing the national Housing Survey (WoON). The rate for those aged 25–34 dropped from 50% in 2002 to 44% in 2024, despite the earlier boom driven by government subsidies and expanding mortgage markets.
Among the five largest EU economies, France was the only one where homeownership among people in their thirties increased, by 4 points. Still, the overall picture across Europe is one of growing inequality between generations, with younger people increasingly locked out of a market that their parents and grandparents could enter far more easily.
For those still hoping to buy, the challenges are not just about saving for a deposit. As Cribb notes, even with a substantial down payment, many cannot borrow enough to afford a home in the area where they live or work. The result is that a growing number of young Europeans are either renting for longer, living with parents, or leaving the housing market altogether.
