Greece ranked among the five most affordable countries in the euro area for mortgage borrowing in November 2025, as lending rates continued to ease and housing credit returned to growth for the first time in more than a decade, according to tovima.com.
Latest figures from the European Central Bank show the average interest rate on Greek mortgages with fixed terms of up to five years fell to 3.04%, well below the euro-area average of 3.35%. This placed Greece fifth in the league table of cheapest mortgage markets within the single-currency bloc.
The improvement reflects a rapid shift over the course of 2025. At the start of the year, Greece was ranked ninth, with average rates at 3.44%. Since October 2023, when borrowing costs peaked at 4.04% following the ECB’s final rate increase, mortgage rates have dropped by a full percentage point.
November also marked a symbolic milestone for the Greek housing market. Data from the Bank of Greece show that the annual growth rate of outstanding mortgage loans turned positive, reaching 0.4% — the first expansion recorded since October 2010 after years of contraction linked to the country’s fiscal crisis.
Malta topped the list of the euro area’s cheapest mortgage markets in November, with an average rate of 1.79%, followed by Portugal (2.73%), Croatia (2.75%) and Cyprus (2.85%). Greece rounded out the top five.
At the other end of the spectrum, Latvia recorded the highest mortgage rates at 8.68%, ahead of Estonia (7.04%) and Lithuania (4.74%). The Netherlands followed at 3.70%, while Germany and Belgium shared fifth place among the most expensive markets at 3.56%.
Across the rest of the euro area, average fixed mortgage rates ranged from 3.46% in Ireland to 3.13% in Finland, underscoring the improving borrowing conditions across much of the bloc.
Source: tovima.com
