Housing is a major issue across Europe. The problem is not just availability, but affordability too, with housing being particularly expensive in capital cities, major urban areas and tourist destinations.House prices and rents vary significantly across Europe. So, which countries and cities are the most expensive for buying a house or flat in 2026? How much does a square metre cost? And how much is needed to buy an apartment in a city centre?The “Mapping the World’s Prices 2026” report, published by Deutsche Bank Research Institute, compares the price per square metre of buying an apartment in the city centre across 69 cities, 28 of them in Europe.Switzerland is the most expensive country to buy a houseTwo Swiss cities rank at the top, making Switzerland the most expensive country to buy real estate in city centres. The price per square metre for an apartment is €22,910 in Zurich and €19,439 in Geneva.For an 80-square-metre apartment, that would mean a price of around €1,833,000 in Zurich and €1,555,000 in Geneva.London ranks third at €17,241 (£14,782) per square metre. So, an apartment of this size would cost around €1,379,000, or £1,183,000.London is 35% more expensive than ParisWhile Paris comes next, real estate in the French capital is comparatively cheaper than in London. The price per square metre is €12,771. Buying an apartment in London city centre is around 35% more expensive than in Paris.Vienna completes the top five, with a price of €12,483 per square metre. Only two cities in the top five are from Europe’s largest economies: London in the UK and Paris in France.The most expensive city in Germany is Munich at €11,435 per square metre. Luxembourg (€11,011), Copenhagen (€10,191), Stockholm (€10,037) and Oslo (€9,785) are also in the top 10. The price falls below the €10,000 mark in the Norwegian capital.Three Nordic cities are in the top 10 while Helsinki ranks 13th at €8,431 per square metre. Milan and Amsterdam are just above the Finnish capital at €9,378 and €9,273 per square metre respectively.Prague is pricier than Madrid and BerlinPrague is more expensive than the Spanish and German capitals. The price per square metre to buy an apartment in the city centre is €8,352.This compares with €7,831 in Madrid and €7,613 in Berlin. Rome follows at €7,328 per square metre. It is still above 7,000 levels in Dublin (€7,185) and Frankfurt  (€7,162)while it is over 6,000 in Lisbon (€6,636) and Barcelona (€6,485). Cheapest cities: Istanbul and Athens Istanbul is the cheapest European city on the list at €2,646 per square metre, followed by the capital of neighbouring Greece, Athens, at €3,442.Brussels, the EU capital, is also among the cheapest cities, ranking third from the bottom. The price per square metre to buy an apartment there is €4,380.Birmingham in the UK (€4,671) is also below the €5,000 mark, while Budapest (€5,243), Warsaw (€5,443) and Edinburgh (€5,708) are above this level.The simple average across the 28 cities is €9,090 per square metre.Based on this, the cost of an 80-square-metre apartment exceeds €1 million in only four cities. Zurich is actually close to €2 million, while Geneva is above €1.5 million.The average price for an 80-square-metre apartment across the list would be around €727,000.Hong Kong is the most expensive, Cairo the cheapestAmong all 69 cities in the report, Hong Kong is the most expensive, at €23,790 per square metre, followed by Zurich (€22,910) and Seoul (€21,897).The cheapest cities are Cairo (€784) and Johannesburg (€913), both below the €1,000 mark.The figures in the report are based on data from Numbeo and Deutsche Bank. They were converted into euros using the ECB’s average exchange rates for the first half of 2026.