Almost 16% of Romania’s population lived in households which spent 40% or more of their disposable income on housing in 2015, this being the second-highest share in the EU, after the one reported for Greece – 40.9%, according to data from EU’s statistical office Eurostat.

Housing costs include rental or mortgage interest payments but also the cost of utilities such as water, electricity, gas or heating. Such costs are considered as an excessive burden when they represent more than 40% of equivalised disposable income.

At EU level, the housing costs represented a real burden for 11.3% of the population in 2015. The countries where a relatively small proportion of the population lived in households where housing costs exceeded 40% of their disposable income were Malta - 1.1 %, Cyprus - 3.9 %, Ireland - 4.6 %, and Finland - 4.9%.

At the other extreme, besides Greece and Romania, there were also countries such as Germany - 15.6 % and Denmark - 15.1 %.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com