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Spain considers the possibility of providing 100% tax on houses acquired by customers outside the EU. Although the goal is to facilitate the country’s housing problem, real estate tax is an important source of income in many European countries.
According to the European Commission, real estate tax as a percentage of GDP in the EU varies from 0.3% in the Czech Republic and Estonia to 3.7% in France in 2023. The average value of the EU is 1.9%.
But how much do real estate taxes are collected throughout Europe? What percentage of general tax revenues comes from real estate taxes? And how much does the real estate tax tax increase as a percentage of GDP?
EURONEWS Business will examine in more detail the income from real estate tax throughout Europe.
What is the share of GDP representing real estate tax?
In the EU, real estate tax contributes to the highest share GDP In France (3.7%) and in the lowest in the Czech Republic and Estonia (both 0.3%).
When the countries of the European Free Transaction Zone (EKES), the UK and Türkiye are turned on – using some OECD elements – Great Britain occupies slightly higher than France, although both make up about 3.7%.
Belgium also exceeds 3%, by 3.2%. Spain takes fifth place with 2.5%, followed by Greece with 2.7%.
Other countries with more than 2% are Iceland, Luxembourg, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy and Portugal.
Real estate tax is less than 1% of GDP in almost half of 32 countries in the list. He is especially low in Slovakia, Lithuania, Estonia and the Czech Republic, less than 0.5%.
Among the five largest economies in Europe, Germany has a significantly lower share by 1%than others. Italy is in the fourth with 2.1%, while France and Great Britain are at the top of the list.
The chart above shows that north -west Europe collects a higher percentage of its GDP due to real estate tax, while Eastern Europe and the Baltic countries collect a lower rate. In southern Europe, the image is more mixed, although often at higher levels.
According to the OECD, real estate taxes include all repeating and non -controling contributions to the use, property or transfer of property. They cover taxes on real estate or pure wealth, inheritance and taxes on donations, as well as taxes on financial and capital operations.
What about real estate tax income?
The United Kingdom received the largest amount of real estate taxes in 2023, 115 billion euros (100 billion pounds), and then France with 104.5 billion euros. In these two countries, real estate taxes are dominated by, and Italy is in third place – only 45.3 billion euros.
Germany and Spain end the five best, collecting 41.4 billion euros and 36.8 billion euros, respectively. The total amount of the EU is 318.8 billion euros.
Belgium (18.8 billion euros), Switzerland (17.9 billion euros), the Netherlands (14.4 billion euros) and Poland (10.7 billion euros) also received more than 10 billion euros as a result of real estate tax in 2023.
In 10 EU countries, real estate tax income is less than 1 billion euros, and Estonia is the lowest of 110 million euros.
Real estate tax as a percentage of total taxation
The share of real estate taxes, which is a common taxation, varies widely in Europe. According to the European Commission, in 2023 in the EU it varies from 0.8% in Estonia and the Czech Republic to 8.4% in France. The average EU was 4.7%.
In addition to France, seven other EU countries were more than 5%tax ratio (7.4%), Greece (7%), Spain (6.7%), Portugal (5.9%), Luxembourg (5.7%), Italy (5.1%) and Denmara (5.1%).
In Germany, real estate taxes make up only 2.5% of the total taxation.
Promotions of real estate transfer tax in Europe
Real estate taxes expressed as a percentage of GDP indicate the importance of real estate sales as a source of state revenues in some countries. These taxes apply to financial and capital transactions, mainly associated with the market, sale and emblems.
According to the OECD, this drawing amounted to 1% of GDP in Italy in 2023, followed by Belgium, Portugal and Spain (all 0.8%).
In France, tax transfer taxes corresponded to 0.7% of GDP, compared with 0.6% in the United Kingdom and 0.3% in Germany.
OR offer Spain To provide 100% property tax for buyers outside the EU This causes discussions throughout Europe. In May 2025, during the hearing in the European parliament, Jose Garcia Montalvo, a professor of economics at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, said that home tax policy may not be the most effective way to cope with some Housing market problemsField
“Continuous changes in politics and the lack of coordination between tax policy and housing supply measures undermine the efficiency of taxation policy, which leads to unforeseen market results and constant problems of economic accessibility.
Diana Khurani from the OECR -Personal and real estate units noted that there is a significant place to increase the efficiency, equality and income of many different types of housing taxes in the OECR countries.
“Improving these taxes can, in many cases, reduce the increase in housing prices,” the chapel added.