Countries With the Highest Homeownership Rates: What the Data Really Show

Homeownership is often treated as a scoreboard. A country with a high ownership rate is assumed to be wealthy, secure and successful, while a country with many renters is described as less prosperous. That interpretation is too simple. A homeownership rate tells us how households occupy their homes; it does not, by itself, tell us whether the homes are affordable, high quality, debt-free, suitable for the household or located near employment.

The latest comparable official data also measure different populations and years. The OECD’s Society at a Glance 2024 reported that, on average, 71% of OECD households owned their dwelling outright or with a mortgage in 2022, while 24% rented. Only Switzerland and Germany had majority-renter populations in that OECD comparison, at 62% and 55% respectively. The OECD also noted that several Central and Eastern European countries recorded very high outright-ownership rates after the historic sale of state-owned housing in the 1990s.1

Eurostat’s latest EU headline, published in February 2026, said that 68% of people living in EU households owned their home in 2024, down slightly from 69% in 2023.2 That is a population-based EU statistic, not a universal global ranking and not exactly the same denominator as the OECD household statistic.

The most accurate answer to “Which countries have the highest homeownership rates?” is therefore conditional. Several Central and Eastern European countries record high ownership, often because many households own homes outright. Germany and Switzerland have unusually large rental sectors among high-income economies. The United States, Canada, the Nordic countries and other OECD members combine outright owners, mortgaged owners and renters in different proportions. Each pattern reflects history, housing supply, credit markets, taxation, social housing, inheritance, household formation and cultural preference.

Scope note: This guide uses official OECD and Eurostat tenure statistics where possible. It does not create a false global ranking by combining incompatible national surveys, census definitions and commercial databases. “Owner” can mean outright owner or owner with a mortgage, and those categories must be separated whenever the source allows it.

The short answer

The OECD does not present homeownership as a single global league table. Its 2022 comparison found that 71% of OECD households, on average, owned their dwelling either outright or with a mortgage, while 24% rented. Several Central and Eastern European countries, including Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Poland, had more than 70% of households owning outright in the cited OECD comparison.1

At the other end of the OECD tenure spectrum, Switzerland and Germany were the only countries with a majority of renter households, at 62% and 55% respectively. Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands each had more than 40% of households renting.1

Within the European Union, 68% of people living in EU households owned their home in 2024, according to Eurostat’s latest headline release.2 The EU figure should not be compared mechanically with the OECD household average because the unit of measurement differs: Eurostat’s headline refers to people living in households, while the OECD passage reports shares of households.

What the question asks	Best available comparison	Main result	Important caveat
Who owns the most outright?	OECD tenure comparison	Several Central and Eastern European countries recorded more than 70% outright ownership in 2022.	Historic privatisation and inherited housing influence the result.
What is the OECD ownership baseline?	OECD household tenure	71% owned outright or with a mortgage on average in 2022.	It combines two very different financial positions.
What is the EU ownership baseline?	Eurostat population-based tenure	68% of people living in EU households owned in 2024.	It is not a global ranking and uses a different denominator.
Which high-income countries rent most?	OECD household tenure	Switzerland and Germany had majority-renter households.	Renting can be stable and secure; it is not automatically a sign of hardship.
Does high ownership mean housing is affordable?	OECD cost burden and price-to-income measures	Not necessarily.	Ownership can result from past transfers while current costs remain high.

What is a homeownership rate?

A homeownership rate is the share of households or people living in households who occupy a dwelling they own, depending on the source’s definition. The numerator may include a household that owns its home outright, a household still paying a mortgage, or both. The denominator may be all households, all people living in households, or a subset of occupied dwellings.

Those details matter. Suppose one country has many older households that inherited or paid off their homes, while another has many younger households with large mortgages. Both can show a high overall ownership rate, but their financial risks and housing experiences differ. A country with a high rate of outright ownership may have low monthly mortgage expenses but aging homes and limited mobility. A country with a high mortgaged-ownership rate may have modern housing but significant exposure to interest rates and house-price declines.

Tenure category	What it usually means	Why it should be reported separately
Outright owner	The household owns the dwelling without a current mortgage.	May reflect accumulated wealth, inheritance or historic transfers.
Owner with mortgage	The household owns the dwelling but services housing debt.	Monthly affordability depends on interest rates, term, income and loan size.
Private renter	The household rents at a market or near-market price.	Rent burden, tenancy security and local supply determine the experience.
Subsidised or social renter	The household rents below market price under eligibility rules.	Can provide strong affordability and security even when ownership is low.
Other or rent-free occupant	The household occupies housing under another arrangement.	Family arrangements and institutional housing can affect comparisons.

The OECD’s affordable-housing analysis distinguishes outright owners, owners with a mortgage, private renters and subsidised renters. Its central warning is implicit in the data: tenure patterns reflect diverse historical contexts, household preferences and policy priorities.1 A ranking that merges all ownership into one number hides those differences.

How the OECD and Eurostat numbers differ

The OECD and Eurostat are both authoritative, but their statistics answer slightly different questions. The OECD Society at a Glance 2024 reports household tenure across OECD countries for 2022. Eurostat’s February 2026 news release reports the share of people living in EU households who owned their home in 2024.1 2

The year difference is important because homeownership changes slowly in some countries but can shift after housing booms, mortgage-rate changes, migration, demographic change or new construction. The denominator difference is also important because a household with several occupants counts once in a household statistic but contributes several people to a population statistic.

A third difference is country coverage. The OECD comparison covers OECD members; Eurostat covers EU countries and its own statistical framework. Neither is a complete world census. Countries outside these systems may publish comparable statistics, but a global ranking would require harmonising definitions, survey years, housing types and tenure categories.

Comparison issue	OECD household statistic	Eurostat EU population statistic
Reference year in the cited release	2022	2024
Main unit	Households	People living in households
Geographic scope	OECD countries	European Union
Ownership headline	71% owned outright or with a mortgage on average	68% of people lived in an owner-occupied household
Best use	Comparing tenure structures and renter/owner categories	Tracking the EU population-level ownership baseline over time
Main risk	Combining owner types into one headline	Treating a regional population share as a world ranking

The numbers should therefore be quoted with their source and denominator rather than combined into one “latest global rate.” This is not a minor technicality. It is the difference between reproducible housing analysis and an attractive but unreliable listicle.

Why Central and Eastern Europe often records high ownership

The OECD identifies a historical reason for the very high outright-ownership rates recorded in several Central and Eastern European countries: state-owned housing was sold to existing tenants during the 1990s.1 In many cases, households that had previously rented publicly owned apartments became owners through subsidised or low-cost transfers. The resulting ownership rate can remain high decades later even when household incomes and housing quality differ substantially from Western European standards.

This history changes the interpretation of ownership. A household may own an apartment without a mortgage but have limited liquid savings, a low pension, significant maintenance obligations or difficulty selling the property in a weak local market. A high ownership rate can coexist with overcrowding, energy inefficiency, aging apartment blocks and limited access to housing in fast-growing cities.

Inherited housing also affects the rate. If adult children remain in a family dwelling or inherit a property, they may be classified as living in owner-occupied housing without having purchased it through current income. That can reduce the apparent housing cost for some households while making it difficult for newcomers or young people without family property to enter the market.

The same historical process can produce different results by region. A capital city with new jobs may experience rising rents and house prices even when the national ownership rate remains high because owners in smaller towns or rural areas keep the national average elevated. National tenure data are therefore useful for structural comparison but insufficient for a city-level housing decision.

Germany and Switzerland: high-income rental societies

Germany and Switzerland challenge the idea that ownership is the only successful housing model. The OECD reports that renters made up a majority of households in both countries in 2022: 55% in Germany and 62% in Switzerland.1

A high rental share can reflect high purchase prices, limited land, strict lending conditions, tax rules, strong tenant protections, a large professional rental sector and cultural acceptance of renting. It can also reflect a housing system in which rental contracts are more stable than the short-term arrangements familiar in other countries. The ownership statistic alone cannot tell us whether renters feel secure or whether they face unaffordable costs.

The OECD also notes that more than 40% of households rented in Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands.1 Those countries differ in their social-housing supply, rent regulation, construction patterns and mortgage markets. Treating them as a single “renter culture” would conceal important policy differences.

For an international comparison, the relevant questions are: How long do households stay in their homes? What protection do renters have against unjustified eviction or sudden rent increases? How much social housing exists? What share of income goes to rent? Can households move to access employment? How much of the housing stock is overcrowded or energy inefficient? These are outcome questions that a homeownership rate cannot answer.

High ownership is not the same as affordable housing

The most common analytical mistake is to use ownership as a proxy for affordability. A country can have a high rate because older households own property acquired at lower historical prices, while younger renters face severe barriers. Conversely, a country can have a lower rate because households rent stable, well-maintained homes with predictable costs and strong legal protection.

The OECD uses a housing-cost burden measure: the share of households spending more than 40% of disposable household income on rent or mortgage costs.1 This is not the only possible threshold, and it does not capture every form of hardship, but it is more informative than ownership alone because it relates housing expenses to income.

The OECD’s 2022 analysis found that, in eight OECD countries, more than 40% of low-income homeowners with a mortgage spent more than 40% of disposable income on mortgage costs. The same was true for low-income private renters in 13 countries. Low-income tenants in subsidised housing were less likely than private-market tenants to exceed the 40% threshold in nearly all OECD countries with available data.1

Indicator	What it captures	What it misses
Homeownership rate	Tenure status	Debt, quality, location and monthly burden.
Outright ownership	Ownership without a current mortgage	Maintenance, taxes and illiquid wealth.
Mortgage ownership	Ownership with housing debt	Interest-rate risk, term and loan-to-income ratio.
Rent burden	Housing cost relative to disposable income	Security of tenure and quality unless separately measured.
Price-to-income ratio	House prices relative to income	Credit conditions, deposits and regional variation.
Overcrowding	Whether the dwelling is too small for household size	Location, commuting and quality.

A person can be “a homeowner” and still be housing-cost burdened. A person can be “a renter” and have a secure, affordable, well-located home. A data-rich housing article must keep those statements separate.

Mortgages, interest rates and household risk

Mortgage ownership transfers a household from the rental market to the ownership market, but it does not eliminate housing costs. The household may pay principal, interest, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities and transaction costs. In a fixed-rate system, payment risk may be more predictable. In a variable-rate system, monetary-policy changes can quickly alter monthly obligations.

House-price appreciation can increase homeowner wealth, but it can also make entry more difficult for households that have not yet purchased. A high ownership rate among older households does not guarantee that young workers can buy in the cities where jobs are available. The relevant data may include age-specific tenure, household income, deposit requirements, debt service and local supply rather than the national average.

The OECD’s housing-price indicators include house-price indices, rent-price indices, price-to-income ratios and price-to-rent ratios.3 A price-to-income ratio compares the nominal house-price index with nominal disposable income per person; it is an affordability indicator rather than a complete mortgage-underwriting test. A household’s actual access to credit also depends on interest rates, down-payment rules, bank standards, tax treatment and expected income stability.

Housing markets can also produce lock-in. Owners with low-rate mortgages may hesitate to move when new borrowing costs are higher. Renters may remain in smaller or less suitable homes because moving requires a large deposit, broker fees and the risk of a higher rent. These frictions affect labour mobility and the ability of households to respond to new employment opportunities.

Social housing and the meaning of renting

Renting is not one market. Private renting is priced through market conditions, while subsidised or social renting is allocated through eligibility criteria and offered at below-market prices or with public support. The OECD reports that social rental housing exists in 31 OECD countries, with the stock particularly important in the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and the United Kingdom, where it comprises more than 15% of total housing stock according to the cited report.1

A country with a large social-housing sector may record a lower homeownership rate but provide affordability and security to a substantial part of the population. A country with a high ownership rate may offer little rental supply, leaving mobile workers, young adults, recent migrants and lower-income households competing for a small private market.

The comparison should therefore ask not “Do people rent?” but “What type of rental system exists?” Relevant dimensions include eligibility, waiting lists, rent-setting rules, maintenance standards, tenant rights, contract duration, access to transport and the geographic distribution of social housing.

Social housing is not automatically high quality or universally available. It can be under-supplied, concentrated in particular neighbourhoods or restricted by administrative rules. However, ignoring it creates a serious bias against rental societies because private-market rent alone may overstate the housing cost faced by subsidised tenants.

Housing quality matters as much as tenure

Ownership statistics do not tell us whether homes are warm, safe, uncrowded, accessible or connected to water, sanitation and reliable energy. A household may own an old property that requires major repairs, while a renter may occupy a new, energy-efficient apartment maintained by a professional landlord.

The OECD Affordable Housing Database monitors housing markets, housing conditions and affordability as separate dimensions.4 The OECD’s Society at a Glance discussion also identifies concerns about maintaining adequate housing and reports that younger people are more likely to worry about finding and keeping a suitable home.1

An internationally useful housing profile can include:

Quality dimension	Example question
Adequacy	Is the dwelling structurally safe and large enough?
Energy	Can the household heat or cool the home without unsustainable cost?
Infrastructure	Does the home have reliable water, sanitation, electricity and internet?
Accessibility	Can older or disabled residents use the dwelling safely?
Overcrowding	Does the number of rooms match household size and composition?
Location	Is the home near employment, schools, healthcare and transport?
Security	Can the household stay without unpredictable displacement?

UN-Habitat’s housing framework also treats adequate housing as more than a roof: security of tenure, affordability, habitability and access to services are relevant dimensions.10 The principle is important for homeownership analysis because ownership is only one part of housing security.

Age, inheritance and household formation

National ownership rates are strongly shaped by demography. Older cohorts have had more time to buy or inherit property and to repay mortgages. Younger adults face later household formation, higher education costs, labour-market uncertainty and house prices that may have risen faster than wages in employment centres.

Household formation also changes the denominator. If young adults remain with parents, the family may be recorded as one owner household rather than several renter households. If they move into separate rented homes, the rental share can rise even without a major change in housing wealth. Countries with different cultural norms around multigenerational living can therefore show different tenure statistics for reasons that are not simply “more affordable housing.”

Inheritance can increase outright ownership without increasing the supply of homes in the places where people need them. The inherited property may be rural while jobs and universities are concentrated in cities. Selling or renting the property can involve taxes, maintenance, legal costs and emotional factors. Homeownership is therefore both a financial asset and a location constraint.

A better comparison presents age-specific ownership, outright versus mortgaged ownership, household composition and regional differences where data allow. One national rate is not enough to describe the housing prospects of a 25-year-old, a family with children or a retiree.

Does homeownership create wealth?

A home can be a store of wealth, a consumption good, a source of imputed housing services and a financial liability. Whether it creates net wealth depends on the purchase price, borrowing cost, maintenance, taxes, insurance, market value, remaining debt and alternative investments. Rising prices increase paper wealth for owners but can reduce access for non-owners and raise rents when landlords pass on costs.

The OECD Housing Policy Toolkit describes owned homes as a major store of household wealth in many countries, while also showing that household assets differ by country and category.5 A high ownership rate can therefore indicate broad asset holding, but it does not reveal how evenly housing wealth is distributed. If a small group owns multiple properties while many households own none, the national rate can coexist with substantial inequality.

A homeowner’s net worth is not the same as liquid income. A property may be valuable but difficult to sell without leaving the local community. Older owners may have high housing wealth and low cash income. Younger owners may have high gross assets and high mortgage debt. Financial analysis should distinguish gross property value, outstanding mortgage, liquid assets and household income.

This article is not recommending that readers buy or avoid property. It is explaining why homeownership statistics cannot serve as a stand-alone investment recommendation.

Comparing the United States, Europe and other housing systems

Cross-country comparisons are often distorted by different mortgage and tax systems. The United States has a large owner-occupied housing sector and a deep mortgage market, but national figures hide wide variation between metropolitan areas, states, age groups and income levels. A country with a high national rate can still have severe affordability stress in high-demand cities.

Germany and Switzerland show a different pattern: renting is the majority tenure in the OECD’s 2022 comparison, yet both are high-income economies.1 The absence of majority ownership does not establish that households are less secure. It means the housing system relies more heavily on rental contracts and professional landlords.

Central and Eastern European countries show another pattern: high outright ownership partly linked to the post-socialist sale of state housing.1 That pattern may reduce mortgage debt but can leave a large share of the housing stock in aging buildings and can make urban mobility difficult.

Nordic countries and the Netherlands illustrate the importance of social and cooperative housing, mortgage structures and tax policy. A country may combine high ownership with a large renter sector, or high housing costs with strong tenant support. The correct comparison is institutional rather than merely numerical.

How to compare homeownership responsibly

Start by identifying the unit. Are you comparing households, people or occupied dwellings? Then identify the tenure categories. Does “owner” include a mortgage? Are rent-free occupants included with renters? Is social housing separated? These definitions should appear beside the number, not hidden in a footnote.

Next, match the geographic level to the question. A national rate is suitable for long-run structural comparison. A family deciding where to live needs regional or city data. A first-time buyer needs local house prices, household income, mortgage rates, down-payment requirements and taxes. An older household needs maintenance, accessibility, healthcare and retirement-income analysis.

Then add the affordability layer. Use housing cost burden, price-to-income ratios, rent-to-income ratios, overcrowding and energy-cost measures. The OECD Affordable Housing Database and the IMF’s housing-affordability dataset provide examples of how affordability can be operationalised rather than inferred from ownership alone.4 8

Finally, report uncertainty and timing. House prices and mortgage rates can move quickly. Tenure rates usually change more slowly and may reflect past housing policy. A 2022 ownership statistic should not be described as a live 2026 market rate without qualification.

A sound comparison includes	Why it matters
Ownership outright and with mortgage	Separates debt-free tenure from leveraged tenure.
Private and subsidised renting	Distinguishes market rent from supported rent.
Household or population denominator	Prevents incompatible rates being compared.
Housing-cost burden	Shows whether housing consumes too much income.
House prices and income	Measures entry affordability.
Housing quality	Prevents ownership from being treated as a welfare proxy.
Age and regional breakdowns	Identifies who owns and where.
Reference year	Prevents stale data from being presented as current.

Common mistakes in homeownership rankings

The first mistake is calling a high rate a sign of prosperity. Historic transfers and inheritance can produce high outright ownership in countries with lower average incomes. The second is calling a low rate a sign of failure. A large, secure social-rental sector can provide housing without ownership.

The third mistake is merging mortgage owners with outright owners. The households have different cash flows, interest-rate exposure and net-worth profiles. The fourth is ignoring housing quality. Ownership of a poorly insulated or overcrowded dwelling is not the same as access to adequate housing.

The fifth is using a national rate to describe a capital city. Housing markets are local. The sixth is comparing people with households. The seventh is treating a single year as a permanent cultural pattern even though housing markets respond to policy, prices, migration, interest rates and demographic change.

The eighth is using ownership as an investment conclusion. A high national ownership rate does not forecast future property returns. It does not tell us whether a specific home is fairly priced, whether the mortgage is affordable, or whether renting is financially preferable for a particular household.

Frequently asked questions

Which countries have the highest homeownership rates?

Several Central and Eastern European countries recorded very high outright-ownership rates in the OECD’s 2022 comparison, including Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Poland, each with more than 70% of households owning outright according to the OECD report.1 The data should not be treated as a universal global ranking because definitions, years and household structures differ.

What is the average homeownership rate in the OECD?

The OECD reported that 71% of households across OECD countries owned their dwelling outright or with a mortgage in 2022. The same statistic reported that 24% rented in the private or subsidised market.1

Which wealthy countries have the most renters?

In the OECD’s 2022 comparison, Switzerland and Germany were the only countries with a majority of renter households, at 62% and 55% respectively. Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands each recorded more than 40% of households renting.1

What was the EU homeownership rate in 2024?

Eurostat reported that 68% of people living in EU households owned their home in 2024, slightly down from 69% in 2023.2 The statistic is population-based, so it should not be compared without qualification to an OECD household-based rate.

Is owning a home always better than renting?

No. Ownership can provide stability and potential wealth accumulation, but it also brings debt, maintenance, taxes, insurance and reduced mobility. Renting can be expensive or insecure in some markets, but it can also provide flexibility, professional maintenance and strong legal protection. The answer depends on price, income, tenure security, time horizon and household goals.

Does a high homeownership rate mean housing is affordable?

No. A country can have high ownership because of inherited property or historic privatisation while young households face high prices and rents. Affordability should be assessed using housing costs relative to disposable income, house-price-to-income ratios, housing quality and access to suitable locations.1 3

Why is Germany’s homeownership rate relatively low?

The OECD reports that Germany had a majority of renter households in 2022. The rate reflects the country’s rental market, housing policy, prices, household preferences and the long-term structure of tenure. A low ownership rate does not by itself show that German households are worse off than households in high-ownership countries.1

How is mortgage ownership different from outright ownership?

A mortgaged owner owns the dwelling but continues to repay principal and interest. An outright owner does not have a current mortgage, although both may face maintenance, taxes, insurance and energy costs. Combining them into one number hides household debt and cash-flow differences.

Can homeownership rates be used to predict property prices?

No. Tenure rates describe who occupies housing, not whether property prices will rise or fall. Price forecasts require local supply, demand, income, interest rates, credit conditions, construction, regulation and market-specific evidence. A national ownership statistic is not an investment model.

Conclusion

Homeownership is a useful housing statistic, but it is not a complete measure of prosperity, affordability or living standards. OECD data show a 71% average ownership rate across OECD households in 2022 when outright and mortgaged owners are combined, while Eurostat reported that 68% of people living in EU households owned their home in 2024.1 2

The highest ownership patterns often reflect history. Central and Eastern European countries recorded high outright ownership after the sale of state-owned housing. Germany and Switzerland show that majority renting can exist in high-income economies. Social housing, tenant protection, local supply, mortgage markets, inheritance and household formation all shape the number.

The most important distinction is between owning a home and being able to afford adequate housing. A strong analysis adds housing-cost burden, price-to-income ratios, quality, location, debt and income. It separates outright owners from mortgaged owners and private renters from subsidised renters. It uses the correct denominator and reference year.

A ranking can be a useful starting point, but the meaningful question is always more specific: who owns, what do they owe, what does the home cost to maintain, and can households access a suitable place to live where they need it?

This is research and analysis only, not personalized financial advice.

Related Reading

• Countries with the Highest Cost of Living
• Countries with the Highest Income Inequality
• Countries with the Largest Economies by GDP
• Countries with the Most Billionaires
• Countries with the Best Work-Life Balance

References