Portugal ranks 17th globally in homeownership

Homeownership is generally seen as a sign of financial stability; yet the countries with the highest levels of residential ownership are not those that are the most prosperous.

By Íris Marçal, in News, Housing · 24 Sep 2026, 18:03 · 0 Comments

Credits: Supplied Image; Author: Client;

As shown in the OECD data on affordable housing published by Visual Capitalist, a source that also includes results from a 2019 study by Clark, Huang, and Yi concerned with the Chinese market, eight of the top ten positions on the global list are occupied by former or present communist states. Slovakia leads the ranking with 93.5% of the population living in owner-occupied homes, followed by Romania at 92.8%, Croatia at 90.4%, and China at 90%; Lithuania, Bulgaria, Poland, and Latvia are also in the top ten, all with ownership rates above 80%. Portugal ranks 17th with a homeownership rate of 72.1%, slightly below the European Union average of 72.5%.

This geographical pattern stems directly from housing policies implemented over the past few decades. The high rate of homeownership in Eastern European countries can be attributed to the privatisation of housing that was previously state-owned, with the apartments being sold to the people who were already living in them at low prices following the collapse of the socialist systems.

In China, extensive legislative changes in the 1990s encouraged residents to purchase public apartments at reduced rates, thus making private home ownership a key component of household wealth and a major factor in both the real estate industry and the national economy.

By contrast, the major economic powers have considerably lower homeownership rates. Germany has a rate of 41 per cent, whereas Switzerland is at 38.2 per cent—this being the lowest of all the countries examined. This is due to well-organised rental markets, strong legal rights for tenants, and reasonably affordable long-term rents, all of which reduce the motivation to buy.

In a similar way, Canada (68.6 per cent), the United States (65.3 per cent), Australia (62.7 per cent) and France (58.5 per cent) are either at or below the OECD average of 70.1 per cent. By contrast, developed countries such as Spain (73.6 per cent), Italy (75.2 per cent), Iceland (78.4 per cent) and Japan (84 per cent) have high levels of homeownership, showing that public policies, financing models and the dynamics of the rental market have just as great an impact on access to property as national income does.