What a home costs
in 12 countries

Twelve markets, one line each

Cheapest, most affordable, most desirable

1. Cheapest — by national €/m² benchmark

Only five countries have a national €/m² benchmark we can stand behind. Italy and Portugal are effectively tied — but Italy's number is an asking price and Portugal's is what buyers actually paid. Since asking prices run above sale prices, Italy is almost certainly the cheapest market in this set on any like-for-like basis.

Of the three whole-home-price countries, the UK is cheapest (£270,080 ≈ €316,000 average), then Ireland (€390,461 median), then the Netherlands (€487,383 average) — note the UK and Netherlands figures are means and Ireland's is a median, so they aren't perfectly comparable. France, Germany, Greece and Cyprus publish no national price level at all and can't be ranked here. Within countries, the cheapest featured regions are dramatic outliers: Sicily €1,172/m² and Calabria €961/m² (both asking, Jun 2026) undercut everything else in this report.

2. Most affordable — relative to local wages

A rough ratio, calculated one way for all four countries where the briefs give both a national €/m² benchmark and an official wage figure: price of a 100 m² home at the national benchmark ÷ annual gross wage (12 × the monthly figure where only a monthly wage is published). Wage definitions differ by country — treat this as a sketch, not a statistic.

For the whole-home-price countries, the briefs' own average-price-to-wage calculations run: UK ~6.9×, Ireland ~7.0×, Netherlands ~10.1× — a different calculation (whole average home, not 100 m²), so don't compare across the two tables. France, Germany, Greece, Cyprus and Italy are omitted: the first four lack a national benchmark price, and Italy's brief verifies household income, not a wage. One thing matters more than any of it: affordability for a US or Canadian buyer with dollar income is a different question entirely. These ratios describe local earners. Your ratio depends on your dollars, the exchange rate (€1 = $1.17 on 8 July 2026), and what you sell at home.

3. Most desirable for the 50–70 mover — our editorial view

This ranking is opinion, not data. We weighed price, healthcare access, English-friendliness, climate, and whether a realistic visa route exists for expats — using only what our research supports. Reasonable people will rank differently.

Why the others miss the cut: Malta is English-speaking but the AIP regime limits non-EU buyers to one property with no rental, at the steepest price-to-wage ratio here. The UK has no retirement visa — the honest dealbreaker. The Netherlands pairs the highest average price in the set with a squeezed rental market. Germany and Austria offer no straightforward retiree route, and Austria's provinces require approval before a non-EU buyer can purchase at all.