Countries
Every country has its own trap.
In Vienna it is the over-charged pre-war rent, in Portugal the price surge, in Poland the occupancy. We check each country against its own official bodies.
Start an analysisThe countries at a glance
Austria
The biggest avoidable loss here is not the purchase price but the rent. Tens of thousands of pre-war tenancies sit above the legal ceiling. Almost nobody checks the math.
View Austria →Germany
The asking price in a listing is a negotiating position, not a value statement. Whoever does not know the achievable price pays what is asked.
View Germany →Switzerland
There are barely any vacant flats left. Every change of tenant resets the rent higher. Anyone who misses the objection deadline pays that increase for years.
View Switzerland →France
The energy rating decides whether a flat may still be let at all. Buy a poorly rated property and you buy a letting ban with a date on it.
View France →Netherlands
There is a structural shortage of homes. Most purchases close above the asking price. Treating that price as the market value means getting it wrong every time.
View Netherlands →Italy
You cannot assume a building was put up legally and entered correctly in the land registry. That decides whether the contract holds and whether a bank will lend.
View Italy →Spain
Households renting at market rates here spend over 40 percent of income on housing more often than the EU average. Buying prices rise by double digits, widening the gap.
View Spain →Belgium
You pay twice here: first the highest one-off purchase costs in western Europe, then the compulsory refurbishment, because a large part of the stock is in poor energy condition.
View Belgium →United Kingdom
An agreement is not binding. Either side can walk away for no reason and no cost before contracts exchange. That sinks a quarter to a third of all sales.
View United Kingdom →Ireland
The costliest defect appears in no listing: an extension without permission. It makes the house hard to sell and hard to mortgage. The seven-year rule does not cure it.
View Ireland →Poland
Housing is scarce and cramped. Buyers often buy into stock whose condition and occupancy cannot be read from the listing at all.
View Poland →Portugal
Prices are rising faster than in any other EU country. Anchoring on last year gets the sums wrong. Betting on the boom means paying the premium.
View Portugal →Czechia
What encumbers a property here sits in the cadastre, not in the listing. Mortgages, easements and enforcement notes pass to the buyer with it.
View Czechia →Slovenia
What a flat in Slovenia actually cost is public. Anyone who does not look it up is the only one negotiating blind, against someone who knows.
View Slovenia →Also without a page of their own
In these 19 countries you can get the report today.
The official bodies are connected and the check runs. What is still missing here is the detailed page on national law and purchase costs. Just enter the address.
Applies in every EU country
The energy rating is no longer a footnote.
The revised EU buildings directive has to be written into national law by 29 May 2026. Average primary energy use in residential buildings must fall by 16 percent by 2030 and by 20 to 22 percent by 2035. At least 55 percent of that saving has to come from the worst-performing buildings.
Buy a poorly rated property today and you buy a foreseeable duty to renovate along with it.
For some countries, all that stands here so far is what the official sources say for certain. National law, purchase costs and tenancy rules follow once they are documented. An invented percentage for purchase costs would not be a blemish in this context but a liability.