The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of housing taxation across European countries and to provide a source document on the comparative taxation position of housing both between different tenures within each country and between countries. 

Economists see housing as an asset and therefore expect it to be taxed as other investment goods. But from governments’ point of view it is both a significant source of revenue and high on the priorities of voters, generating very different pressures.

In practice housing is taxed in very different ways – ranging from as a consumption good through as a depreciating asset to a non-depreciating asset – both within and between countries – so the result is rarely economically coherent.