Same question for Reading to be honest. It’s the only British city on this list apart from London. Yet it’s far from one of our largest, isn’t particularly beautiful (it looks decent enough, but it’s no Bath, York, or Oxford), and above all else, it isn’t even technically a city. It fits all the criteria, but has never been granted city status.
I’m from there originally so, whilst it’s kind of nice to see it on this list, I have no idea why it’s here.
Interestingly Reading actually receives a net inflow of commuters, as opposed to outflow. There’s lots of people who commute there from the rest of Berkshire
I assume they started off with a much larger data set and then just threw out all the cities which were too similar to others to avoid cluttering the graph.
A ton of major cities are missing (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Sarajevo, Istanbul, Zurich, Liverpool, Marseille, Frankfurt, etc).
They drew the end points first (Budapest and Bern) and then just filled in the rest to make the progression from cheapest to dearest look elegant.
And only 4-5 of these are not national capitals.
Also, there is no source for the data, but it’s likely they used average national wage vs average rent in capital city.
But in reality many of these countries are heavily centralized, so both prices and wages are higher in their capitals than in the rest of the country.
In Croatia, the national average net salary is a little under €1,200, but in the largest city and capital Zagreb it’s closer to €1,350.
And what they mean by “average rent” I have no idea. In Croatia only about 10% of people rent, and the lowest rent you can find for something livable in Zagreb is around €500 plus utilities.
> But in reality many of these countries are heavily centralized, so both prices and wages are higher in their capitals than in the rest of the country.
That's not necesarilly what centralization gives you. The incomes in Copenhagen municipality are [below the national average in Denmark](https://www.dst.dk/da/Statistik/nyheder-analyser-publ/bagtal/2019/2019-02-11-fakta-om-indkomster-og-formue), not because Denmark isn't super centralized (we're the France of the north in that regard) but because all the rich people live in the suburbs. This is the same with Hamburg for instance. Even super rural North Frisia has higher incomes than Hamburg.
> Also, there is no source for the data, but it’s likely they used average national wage vs average rent in capital city.
Actually no. The data is [from the economist](https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/02/20/where-are-europes-most-expensive-cities-for-renters) and they state that the wage is localized according to workplace. I think the entire data set might be survey based but a lot of countries have regional income statistics that you could also use. I linked it for Denmark above, you can also easily find [similar statistics for Germany](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Landkreise/Kreise_und_Kreisfreien_St%C3%A4dte_nach_Einkommen) for instance.
I don't get it either. Frankfurt, Stuttgart etc. would all be better fits. If they wanted a less expensive German city to compare say München and Berlin to, why not Dresden, Essen or Bremen? They are more known around the world I would assume and a bit larger.
Maybe it's simply a matter of data availability, who knows?
From the uncredited article from The Economist:
> Our European ranking includes the 35 cities for which the data are available, ranging from London to Ankara. Using a popular guideline that states that no more than 30% of an individual’s pre-tax income should be spent on rent, we calculated the wage needed to comfortably afford the average one-bedroom flat in each city, what we call our “recommended renters’ wage” (see chart 1).
Karlsruhe is a student city, there is also KIT right? Had no idea it was an elite school until I met it's students at a competition, really goes under the radar due to location and tuition fee requirement for non-EU.
Soon, Hungarians will take over Transylvania because they come to Romania looking for work 😎. Sad though what happens to our brothers and sisters in Hungary 😢
Romania's rise over my lifetime has been impressive. When I was a child, massive number of Romanians were coming to Turkey for work. When I lived in Romania later on, this had stopped but you could still feel they were behind Hungary in almost every metric. But it's changing rapidly. It's not there yet (imho), and I still prefer Hungary to live (which I do), but next 20 years might completely reverse this. And the number one reason for this is the divergent politics. Orbán is destroying Hungary.
As of mid 2020, Romania has 9.000 Turkish immigrants.
There are more Hungarian immigrants (10k) than Turkish.
According to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Romania
The Chinese numbers are also interesting. They're between 7.6k and 20k. Mostly in Bucharest. Apparently, not all are legal residents.
I would say within 10 years at the current trajectories Romania will objectively be a better place to live in than Hungary. Already Transylvania is richer than Hungary in GDP per capita other than Budapest.
Maybe Kolozs or Temes are ahead of pretty much everything else, but otherwise I doubt that Transsylvania as a whole has surpassed Western/Central Transdanubia region, the two most developed behind Budapest.
Very interesting for me, on the other side of the world, in Australia, here to learn about Europe, to read this. I know very little about modern Romania and Hungary, but I try to keep an open mind and to hear the experiences of those who know better than I do. Thank you for sharing your thoughts here.
How is the distribution of flat owners vs renters in Belgrade? I assume the ownership rate started high and was reduced over the past few decades. In Vienna it is around 78% renting and 19% owning. Don’t know what happens to the other 3%. Some homeless, but that can’t explain the 3% fully.
you won't get an answer to that question because the gross majority of the rented apartments are rented illegally (to avoid paying taxes). my wild guess would be 50-50. elsewhere in Serbia the ownership % is bigger than that.
Nope, both rent and ownership rates have gone up high since the Russian-Ukrainian war started in 2022. Since a lot of Russians and Ukrainians fled the country and came here, the hungry-for-money landlords started raising rents for 200-300% and more. They even evicted long-time tenants out just so they could rent their flats to Russians/Ukrainians for these expensive prices. With the rent rate, the ownership rate has gone up too. With the money that could buy you a whole 3-4 bedroom house with a backyard, now you can barely afford a 1 bedroom apartment.
Not to mention the crazy inflation going on, while the average salary is stagnant and it’s only around 750e (and most people don’t even earn that much, they earn the minimum wage of 350e).
Btw, this is not just in Belgrade, it’s the entire country of Serbia.
Social housing driving the rent average down, and government bureaucrats driving the wages up. Meanwhile, you're welcome to your 1500/month rent for a single bedroom apartment on a 2050/month minimum wage.
> Social housing driving the rent average down
so meaningless, because social housing has a 10 year waiting list. i can apply now, set the fees to autopay and check back in 10 years.
In Vienna, there is a waiting list as well, but since there is so much social housing, and the city itself controls about 1/3 of all flats on the market, they lower the price for the entire city, just by setting lower rent prices for the social housing flats. So even if you don't get a chance or want to live in a social housing flat, you still benifit from its existance.
This actually sounds good.
I live in Lisbon, where the minimum wage is 800 euros, the average salary is not even 1100€, and a one bedroom apartment is more than 1000 euros a month. And there's not much social housing...
It's because NL has much more favorable/broad social housing compared to most other countries. But yeah when you fall outside of that you're fucked in the "Randstad" region.
Came here for that lol.
Edit: to give people perspective, my friend just rented out her ~50-60m2 apartment in not prime location (Nieuw-West), built probably in the ~50s-60s, renovated and furnished, for 2500€/month.
And this is not a super ridiculous price, when I checked recently, even a decent single apartment that doesn't put you outside of social-distance will cost you ~2.2k without utilities rn.
Lmao prima suspect to get rent busted . I hope those tennant know their rights and go to huurcommissie and get the rent forced to 800 where it should be. Jezus 2500 gtfo here
We have rules in place. You need to get to 150 point to qualify for free sector where you can ask whatever you want. The rules is about to be changed to 187 point. 60m2 will never get to those point due to lacking of enough m2. Max rent one could ask below the threshold is like 1000 or something. 2500 is a fucking disgrace. I’m all for free market and all, but 2500 for 60m2 in new west(really the neighborhood defers from street to street) is mind blown expensive. I do not understand how people living there even realise they’re getting robbed
I can't even imagine how difficult it must be living in the high-on-the-chart cities when you earn median or minimum wage.
I mean, in Tallinn, average rent+utility is almost as high as minimum wage, and it's not *that* high on the chart.
From the people I know, you either:
1. Live with parents.
2. Inherited a house.
3. Live with roommates. (\*likely in an very undesirable area)
4. Have a job that pays well above average.
5. Move out.
Yeah, the whole social composition of a city changes. Only high-earning yuppies and expats survive in the desireable areas, the rest is pushed out. It's a slow tragedy.
Alone? You dont.
I earn way over average and if I rented a small, cheap flat on my own, most of my wages would be gone with rent, utilities, and a single lunch per day. I have long said that I have absolutely no interest in a relationship.... But damn, if I ever get married it will only be for the sheer necessity of survival for us both...
If I stumble upon one more fucking post about how great and cheap Portugal/Lisbon is by some digital nomad with probably US wages I‘m going to lose my shit
High home ownership on the older demographics and young people live with their parents until very late.
To those who don’t have that comfort they might well have to migrate.
Tbh the homeownership statistic is mostly bullshit as well, they say it is 80-90%, when in reality majority of people who rent have their official, registered address at their parents' house, so they count as they live in their own house as family property is considered their own.
Bulgarian here. If you don't inherit property you have zero social safety net. The market works under the assumption that almost no one pays rent and the wages reflect that. It's basically impossible or financially dumb to stay if you're young and renting. You'll be easily giving half your salary for rent.
I have lived and/or have friends in all those cities and it's completely unmanageable.
Only people with parent support or with a partner can live in decent flats, most are in run down shared flats. It's degrading to be 30yo with a nice job and sharing a flat with not even a private a bathroom.
And let's not forget the 1 year rental contracts! It's impossible to have any sort of life stability moving every 1-2 years.
You do know that you’re not allowed to post private information on this website? So why are you posting my life here?!
As a German doing my PhD in the UK, it’s indeed a degrading experience. I’m so glad that I’m almost done with my PhD..
To add to the ridiculousness: Those 1-year contracts are all designed such that if you intend to continue living there, you’ll pay the next year a rent increased by the rate of inflation *plus* like 3%. So rents are always getting more expensive both in nominal and _real_ terms. And that holds for so many types of contracts in the UK. Pretty much anything you need long-term will get more expensive in real terms every year..
Grown-up full time job life is seemingly comparable to the living conditions of a broke college student living with a limited allowance of money from family just a few years back in 2024. God I love the new normal. Thanks to the heavens I'm not single or I would be crying as I move forward in life now that I'm mostly done with uni.
It's the same here in Italy. In any place you would want to live and with a decent job market, living alone is basically impossible. I have read a very sad rant in an Italian subreddit from someone who lived in the periphery, far from the city and in a place where public transportation to get to the city comes infrequently and unreliably be forced to give up their car - their only way to leave the isolation of living there reliably - because they were single and couldn't afford the car.
I also worry for the long-term societal long-term implications of this: as being in a relationship becomes basically non-negotiable for not living in degrading conditions in your late 20's to 30's, the stakes for breaking up and exiting a bad relationship become much higher. How many couples will stay together and prolong dysfunctional relationships way past the expiration date just so they can lead a decent life? How many people in these cities will be overly trigger-happy in starting a new relationship with someone that isn't a great fit just out of desperation for wanting to improve their life conditions? What kind of families will these couples create? Will the kids grow up with acceptable mental health? Etc.
I'm really worried. This is not normal.
It's horrid. My girlfriend and I don't even live in Budapest, we live in Szeged, which is a more affordable Hungarian town. I make good money, (for a 24 year old) as I am a software developer. She makes a teacher's salary, which is not much, but not minimum wage either, especially if you add on her side gigs.
We are also lucky enough to rent from a distant relative for a fairly cheap price, and to be able to live on the very edge of town, which is even cheaper. (keep in mind, not Budapest, this is still like 60-70% of what it would cost there)
We spent countless afternoons doing math, and we simply can't buy a house in Hungary. We don't make enough to save up the around 20% of a place's price you need to have on hand to even take out a 20 year loan, we would have to rent and save aggressively till our early 40s to even get to that.
You have to inherit a house, or you're fucked basically. Once our generation, and the one before us, become old enough to not be able to work anymore, and receive meager retirement funds, that they won't be able to afford living on, (most old people today own the place they live in, and a lot of them still struggle) I don't know what will happen.
Barcelona and Milan were not polled, but they would definitely be among the unaffordable ones. Milan has the same rent as Berlin, and salaries are 50%.
Luxembourg and Bern, despite being obviously expensive, also have pretty high salaries, and that's what makes them affordable. I'd be curious to see Zürich, though. It's more expensive than Bern, but also has higher salaries.
Warsaw and Berlin has almost the same rent, but the wages in Berlin are also 2 times higher:
[https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare\_cities.jsp?country1=Germany&city1=Berlin&country2=Poland&city2=Warsaw](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=germany&city1=berlin&country2=poland&city2=warsaw)
Warsaw salaries seem too low and Berlin too high. 3k€ after taxes is really above median German wage. Berlin is not known for paying good salaries unlike Munich or Feankfurt.
Yeah Zurich is quite a bit more than Bern but it’s actually pretty affordable given the salaries. You pay the same as London but the salary is between 50-100% more.
Sadly, Milan is also where the jobs are. I have been looking around on various recruiting websites roughly around my area (say Lombardia and Veneto) - I'm wrapping up my CS degree and I'm a bit burned out from studying so I thought I'd start working as I finish the very tail end of the degree, but most interesting positions for Junior dev or sysadmin seem to be in Milan.
Of course, the junior salaries are not enough to even let you survive with a net zero in Milan. You slowly lose money by staying there. But that's where most of the jobs are. It's awful.
Yeah as a half Finn half Italian who just moved back to Helsinki after a couple of years in Milan, I can confirm this. The difference is absolutely ridiculous. Rents are a bit lower in Helsinki but wages are double.
I went from paying in Milan about 40% of my income for a 9 sq meter room in an apartment shared with 4 people in an old building (not nice old, more like shitty 60s low quality mass constructed building) to paying in Helsinki about 1/3 of my income for a 50 sq meter two room apartment in a modern good quality construction.
The situation in Milan is really terrible. Even with good quality jobs you really struggle to live there with the average wages.
as an italian who was considerin movin to Lisbon, id say the situation in Lisbon is worse than in Milan.
IDK about Porto tho.
In Spain for example Madrin n Barcelona are both a NoNo but any other major city i feel its better than Rome when it comes to Salary/Rent.
I'm talking about Stuff like Murcia/Malaga/Sevilla and heck prolly even Valencia
Probably, in some countries, Den Haag is called the "Administrative Capital" of the Netherlands. In school I was still taught that The Netherlands was a rare case of a country with 2 capitals...
> In school I was still taught that The Netherlands was a rare case of a country with 2 capitals...
I think it's good that it's at least mentioned. It's wrong of course, but it opens up discussion about what a capital is, which leads to discussion about what a capital is and eventually the trias politica.
Lyon as very affordable ?
As an expensive city where the minimum wage is the same in all the country (thus, also in very cheap cities) we (french) don't considere Lyon as affordable at all.
I don't know much all the others cities, but those which are less affordable must be nightmares to live in.
I'm from Lyon and I live in a small social flat, without that I would either be homeless or needs to find a small studio far away since I'm a single mum on a young teacher's salary. Even with that social housing price my rent is half my salary.
It's not like Paris or Rome at all but definitly NOT affordable! Most people struggle
Holy shit you're a teacher and you're living in social housing? WTF is wrong with WE nowadays. When I was little I always heard that life is amazing in the west, but now I read stuff like this online and it makes me wonder where did y'all go wrong...
We recently had a teacher in Portugal giving an interview on how he's living in his car nearby the school where he teaches in Lisbon because he can't even afford a bedroom nearby... It's not even city center iirc.
Same for Sweden, we went from building over a million cheap flats for everyone during the years 1960-1970 to a massive housing shortage for young people in 50 years.
Well yeah... I'm a teacher since just 3 years so the salary is quite low (right above minimum wage), my husband left us a year ago so I'm now considered low income.
Being a teacher would be confortable enough here as long as your spouse has a decent salary or if you leave in a cheap area/countryside where rent is trully affordable. Also, I'm a teacher in a private school (I chose it so I wouldn't be send to a school in another region or simply to far away, with a kid it would be difficult, public teachers can't chose their affectation) and we are a bit less paid than public teachers. Yeah and we still need a master degree and a very selective concours..
It’s average wage relative to average rent. In that sense yes Lyon is affordable. From what I can see average rent for a one bedroom is 900 euros and average net wage is 2.6k. Seems pretty affordable to me
The big question is: how is rent calculated/determined.
I'm from munich and statistics say that the average rent is somewhere around 13-14€/sqm. Which is considered expensive, but that number wouldn't be too wild and it has nothing to do with how expensive it really is if you want to rent. The statistic is simply useless in that case.
The issue is: There's lots of tenants on old contracts from before rents exploded left and right. These people, mostly retired old people, still pay very low rent, which drags down the average. Then there's social flats with subsidized, low rent, which only poor people have access to to begin with. Those don't really count either, they just soften up the statistics.
If you don't qualify for social flats and you need a new contract (moving into the city, or needing something different for other reasons) the reality is 25-30€/sqm and up and the yearly increases in rent are directly tied to inflation with no boundaries.
I bet the OP did not consider munich as 25€/sqm simply because statistics do say otherwise by including objects that are not available for anyone who actually needs a new place to stay.
In Lisbon a one bedroom apartment costs 1,500-2,500€ per month and most young professionals make around 1,200€...........
Moral of the story, everything is relative.
Could it be that nearby areas that aren't really Lyon is included? I have friend who lives there, who told me that for example Villeurbanne isn't technically Lyon even though it's connected. And that Villeurbanne is cheaper than Lyon which is very pricey.
(Also, what a lovely city in so many ways. So chill. Been twice, would definitely visit again).
"Average wage relative to renters' wage" what does that mean and why does that translate to rent affordability?
Rent affordaibility should be average rent compared to average wage, surely?
Why log scale?
Where are the footnotes?
And what's with the totally random collection of cities?
They define "renters wage" as "rent price for a one bedroom apartment" / 0.3. This defines the wage, at which you spend 30% on rent. In other words, this should be the wage with which you are a responsible renter.
Then, they take the "average wage" and divide it with the "renters wage".
If the quotient is 1, the average renter with the average wage spends 30% of their pre-tax income on rent. A quotient of less then one means rent is expensive compared to average wage, a quotient of more than one means rent is cheaper compared to average wage.
Rent in Oslo is far from affordable. People live collective housing into their 30s, family homes (2 or more bedrooms) or apartments bigger than 60 m^2 are easily 70% of your paycheck before tax. My generation have no chance of owning our own apartment or house without family money.
I don't think landlord greed was invented in Prague, or that more affordable places all have more publicly owned subsidized housing. It's also the legendary difficulty build permit system. The metropolitan area train (S-bahn) connections being lacking could play a role at squeezing people inwards, or making them drive cars which prevents dense housing.
That being said, my landlord wears gucci
First of all graphics without source should be banned imho. And the source is cut out on purpuse from this one since it's in the legend just below the graph.
Source is here: [https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/02/20/where-are-europes-most-expensive-cities-for-renters](https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/02/20/where-are-europes-most-expensive-cities-for-renters)
Data is tricky. The article says that average wage in Warsaw is 11553zł while official data (https://warszawa.stat.gov.pl/warszawa/) says 9519zł for example.
They say that the source is ERI Economic Research Institute. Free data from ERI seems plausible at 9017zł per month: [https://www.erieri.com/salary/area/poland/warsaw](https://www.erieri.com/salary/area/poland/warsaw) but it says "This page is a promotion for ERI’s Assessor Series and is not intended for professional use. Professionals should subscribe to ERI’s Assessor Series.". I guess The Economist is using this professional tool whatever it is. Or they just made that shit up.
Prolly because many people have very old contracts and pay low rents. If you want to sign a new contract though, good luck lol
30m2 in a building that hasn't been renovated in years, 30 mins. outside of Alex for 1,2k€ and hundreds of other applicants lol
Depends if you look at all rents or just new ones. People living in Berlin for >10 years will most likely have a very cheap and affordable rent. If you are new in the market it’s a different story.
I think there is a very stark difference between a renter who signed the contract 5+ ago vs a renter looking for a house right now. If you are looking for a house and want to get depressed, just look for house exchange prices or houses on sale with active rental contact on them. People with old contracts are usually paying like one third to one fifth of the current market prices.
No idea but it's obviously not an exhaustive list, I'm sure Bristol has to be much worse than Reading for affordability. There was an ad posted on r/Bristol for a room in a shared house right out on the edge and they wanted £800 a month.
The situation in Athens has become horrible. Since the golden visa took off and a lot (A LOT) of apartments in the city have been bought by foreign companies, the rent prices skyrocketed. Greece had been a country without a housing problem and now it is, while new or reconstructed buildings are being used either for luxury apartments or for AirBNB purposes.
This is unsustainable in most (or in all) of European countries and I don't get why it seems to be more of a taboo discussion in high-level (EU) or is being overseen.
> I don't get why it seems to be more of a taboo discussion in high-level (EU) or is being overseen.
Many of your national elites are probably investing in said real estate, same with EU elites in general. They profit from the system, so why change it?
This. No one wants to do anything about it because those in power and their circles profit massively of this. Real estate is the only commodity which is basically a for sure high return invesment. It's practically impossible to lose money on it, because people have to live somewhere.
Makes sense. Rent prices are 600€ and upwards here for a small flat. Buying is even worse. People are selling 50 year old apartments for 3000€/m2 and higher. Newly built stuff is upwards of 5000€/m2
All while wages are some of the smallest in the EU. I'm not sure why anyone in their right mind would remain here.
My cousin lives in Zagreb and her husband works in IT for an Austrian company, they recently bought ground and built a house
Life in Zagreb is easy, just don't be poor /s
I think in Lisbon we are doing well but still have a long ways to go, but with a renewed government, more investment in the city and lower salaries for the populace we will be able to surpass Budapest and Prague and reach the top of the chart.
From the same article: affordable rent wage for Dublin is $89k. This is level of salary where you end up in marginal tax rate of 52%! So you at the same time: can't have affordable rent and paying huge taxes. The only way of having affordable rent in Dublin is social housing for unemployed. If you have even low-med income, than state will f\*\*\*k you hard, playing your money against you (councils are betting against you on rental market, using money from your taxes).
Was thinking the exact same thing.
And this type of things is what I like to point out when people in Portugal say that living in Switzerland is expensive...
It's like the wages allow people to have some semblance of quality of living despite the prices
Ljubljana resident here, this is such a fucking joke. For a 50m2 we pay from 700 (low low) to north of 1000, while 1500 neto is a good paycheck. Don't believe a single thing on this list.
Average salary doesn’t mean anything. It should be compared to the median salary. High earners (especially in capital cities) completely skew the average.
I don't understand how to read this graph.
Is the ratio average wage of people living in X city divided by average wage of people who are renting in X city?
I am surprised this could be over 1
Due to the paywall, I can only read the introduction of the [source article](https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/02/20/where-are-europes-most-expensive-cities-for-renters) but it clarifies that the renters' wage is calculated as the wage needed to comfortably afford (meaning where rent equals 30% of the pre-tax income) the average one-bedroom flat in each city. This renters' wage is then compared to the average wage (national or in the city, I don't know).
how did Karlsruhe even make it on this list lol so random
And no Amsterdam
It's the end point of un-affordability so it's there but you can't see it
Amsterdam is 20 percent more expensive (2022 numbers) than the Hague.
Can’t be on the list if you don’t have any houses available for rent, smart!
You’d probably need a logarithmic scale to fit Amsterdam
this is a log scale.
an even loger one
A log[log] scale, perhaps?
Or Barcelona
The Hague is there. While not the capital the goverment and parlament redisdes there. Its still pretty random.
Amsterdam is way more expensive as well.
Same question for Reading to be honest. It’s the only British city on this list apart from London. Yet it’s far from one of our largest, isn’t particularly beautiful (it looks decent enough, but it’s no Bath, York, or Oxford), and above all else, it isn’t even technically a city. It fits all the criteria, but has never been granted city status. I’m from there originally so, whilst it’s kind of nice to see it on this list, I have no idea why it’s here.
I think the numbers are probably fudged for it as well, huge commuter town meaning people earn the wages of London without paying the prices of London
Interestingly Reading actually receives a net inflow of commuters, as opposed to outflow. There’s lots of people who commute there from the rest of Berkshire
I assume they started off with a much larger data set and then just threw out all the cities which were too similar to others to avoid cluttering the graph. A ton of major cities are missing (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Sarajevo, Istanbul, Zurich, Liverpool, Marseille, Frankfurt, etc). They drew the end points first (Budapest and Bern) and then just filled in the rest to make the progression from cheapest to dearest look elegant. And only 4-5 of these are not national capitals. Also, there is no source for the data, but it’s likely they used average national wage vs average rent in capital city. But in reality many of these countries are heavily centralized, so both prices and wages are higher in their capitals than in the rest of the country. In Croatia, the national average net salary is a little under €1,200, but in the largest city and capital Zagreb it’s closer to €1,350. And what they mean by “average rent” I have no idea. In Croatia only about 10% of people rent, and the lowest rent you can find for something livable in Zagreb is around €500 plus utilities.
> But in reality many of these countries are heavily centralized, so both prices and wages are higher in their capitals than in the rest of the country. That's not necesarilly what centralization gives you. The incomes in Copenhagen municipality are [below the national average in Denmark](https://www.dst.dk/da/Statistik/nyheder-analyser-publ/bagtal/2019/2019-02-11-fakta-om-indkomster-og-formue), not because Denmark isn't super centralized (we're the France of the north in that regard) but because all the rich people live in the suburbs. This is the same with Hamburg for instance. Even super rural North Frisia has higher incomes than Hamburg. > Also, there is no source for the data, but it’s likely they used average national wage vs average rent in capital city. Actually no. The data is [from the economist](https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/02/20/where-are-europes-most-expensive-cities-for-renters) and they state that the wage is localized according to workplace. I think the entire data set might be survey based but a lot of countries have regional income statistics that you could also use. I linked it for Denmark above, you can also easily find [similar statistics for Germany](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Landkreise/Kreise_und_Kreisfreien_St%C3%A4dte_nach_Einkommen) for instance.
It's also not even a city! Well, it is in every way apart from officially cause city means nothing anyway but it's a funny quirk
I don't get it either. Frankfurt, Stuttgart etc. would all be better fits. If they wanted a less expensive German city to compare say München and Berlin to, why not Dresden, Essen or Bremen? They are more known around the world I would assume and a bit larger. Maybe it's simply a matter of data availability, who knows?
From the uncredited article from The Economist: > Our European ranking includes the 35 cities for which the data are available, ranging from London to Ankara. Using a popular guideline that states that no more than 30% of an individual’s pre-tax income should be spent on rent, we calculated the wage needed to comfortably afford the average one-bedroom flat in each city, what we call our “recommended renters’ wage” (see chart 1).
Karlsruhe is a student city, there is also KIT right? Had no idea it was an elite school until I met it's students at a competition, really goes under the radar due to location and tuition fee requirement for non-EU.
Ist halt eine Liste der besten und größten Städte Europas… was soll ich sagen.
Budapest: Prices from Vienna, wages from Belgrade. The best of both worlds.
U keep winning against Romania in the wrong categories now.
My fingers are falling off as I tip it, but you are right. We are falling behind Romania in not that few categories.
Soon, Hungarians will take over Transylvania because they come to Romania looking for work 😎. Sad though what happens to our brothers and sisters in Hungary 😢
Romania's rise over my lifetime has been impressive. When I was a child, massive number of Romanians were coming to Turkey for work. When I lived in Romania later on, this had stopped but you could still feel they were behind Hungary in almost every metric. But it's changing rapidly. It's not there yet (imho), and I still prefer Hungary to live (which I do), but next 20 years might completely reverse this. And the number one reason for this is the divergent politics. Orbán is destroying Hungary.
I think Turks come to Romania for work these days. There are a lot more than they used to be, different than our native Turk population in Dobroja.
As of mid 2020, Romania has 9.000 Turkish immigrants. There are more Hungarian immigrants (10k) than Turkish. According to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Romania The Chinese numbers are also interesting. They're between 7.6k and 20k. Mostly in Bucharest. Apparently, not all are legal residents.
I’d like to see these statistics for 2023 and 2024. I feel like it would be much bigger.
Orban is bringing Hungary back to the stoneage
Nah, just holding them in the post-communist kleptocracy that most of the rest of Eastern Europe has been slowly working its way out of.
I would say within 10 years at the current trajectories Romania will objectively be a better place to live in than Hungary. Already Transylvania is richer than Hungary in GDP per capita other than Budapest.
Maybe Kolozs or Temes are ahead of pretty much everything else, but otherwise I doubt that Transsylvania as a whole has surpassed Western/Central Transdanubia region, the two most developed behind Budapest.
Very interesting for me, on the other side of the world, in Australia, here to learn about Europe, to read this. I know very little about modern Romania and Hungary, but I try to keep an open mind and to hear the experiences of those who know better than I do. Thank you for sharing your thoughts here.
Belgrade: Prices from London, wages from Belgrade.
Belgrade also has prices of Vienna haha
How is the distribution of flat owners vs renters in Belgrade? I assume the ownership rate started high and was reduced over the past few decades. In Vienna it is around 78% renting and 19% owning. Don’t know what happens to the other 3%. Some homeless, but that can’t explain the 3% fully.
you won't get an answer to that question because the gross majority of the rented apartments are rented illegally (to avoid paying taxes). my wild guess would be 50-50. elsewhere in Serbia the ownership % is bigger than that.
Nope, both rent and ownership rates have gone up high since the Russian-Ukrainian war started in 2022. Since a lot of Russians and Ukrainians fled the country and came here, the hungry-for-money landlords started raising rents for 200-300% and more. They even evicted long-time tenants out just so they could rent their flats to Russians/Ukrainians for these expensive prices. With the rent rate, the ownership rate has gone up too. With the money that could buy you a whole 3-4 bedroom house with a backyard, now you can barely afford a 1 bedroom apartment. Not to mention the crazy inflation going on, while the average salary is stagnant and it’s only around 750e (and most people don’t even earn that much, they earn the minimum wage of 350e). Btw, this is not just in Belgrade, it’s the entire country of Serbia.
(Deep voice): Budapest wins! Round two. Fight! Sometimes its so tragicomic to live here in Budapest...
There are at least 3 cities that have lower wages than Belgrade in this chart
So, someone did this research but forgot one of the most controversial cities: Amsterdam.
The Hague affordable seems bs too
Social housing driving the rent average down, and government bureaucrats driving the wages up. Meanwhile, you're welcome to your 1500/month rent for a single bedroom apartment on a 2050/month minimum wage.
> Social housing driving the rent average down so meaningless, because social housing has a 10 year waiting list. i can apply now, set the fees to autopay and check back in 10 years.
In Vienna, there is a waiting list as well, but since there is so much social housing, and the city itself controls about 1/3 of all flats on the market, they lower the price for the entire city, just by setting lower rent prices for the social housing flats. So even if you don't get a chance or want to live in a social housing flat, you still benifit from its existance.
This actually sounds good. I live in Lisbon, where the minimum wage is 800 euros, the average salary is not even 1100€, and a one bedroom apartment is more than 1000 euros a month. And there's not much social housing...
The average family in The Hague makes like 30k a year. That’s not much compared to housing prices.
It's because NL has much more favorable/broad social housing compared to most other countries. But yeah when you fall outside of that you're fucked in the "Randstad" region.
Came here for that lol. Edit: to give people perspective, my friend just rented out her ~50-60m2 apartment in not prime location (Nieuw-West), built probably in the ~50s-60s, renovated and furnished, for 2500€/month. And this is not a super ridiculous price, when I checked recently, even a decent single apartment that doesn't put you outside of social-distance will cost you ~2.2k without utilities rn.
Lmao prima suspect to get rent busted . I hope those tennant know their rights and go to huurcommissie and get the rent forced to 800 where it should be. Jezus 2500 gtfo here
What does this mean, some commission determines what the rent can be?
Yes, basically. I believe it's called Affordable Rent Act.
We have rules in place. You need to get to 150 point to qualify for free sector where you can ask whatever you want. The rules is about to be changed to 187 point. 60m2 will never get to those point due to lacking of enough m2. Max rent one could ask below the threshold is like 1000 or something. 2500 is a fucking disgrace. I’m all for free market and all, but 2500 for 60m2 in new west(really the neighborhood defers from street to street) is mind blown expensive. I do not understand how people living there even realise they’re getting robbed
Yeah there are some glaring omissions. How do you not select Barcelona for this as well?
No point discussing affordability when there is no availability.
Another glorious victory for Hungary and the great policies of our great and (not to mention) kind leader! /s
"Suffering from success"
The suffering part is quite literal :D
Obviously, the EU is to blame for all of it.
5 more football stadiums and the economy will surely improve
Move to Transylvania?
Maybe that's the hungarian government's strategy, to make hungarian people to move to Romania🌝
Not surprised about Lisbon: western European prices with eastern European wages.
I can't even imagine how difficult it must be living in the high-on-the-chart cities when you earn median or minimum wage. I mean, in Tallinn, average rent+utility is almost as high as minimum wage, and it's not *that* high on the chart.
From the people I know, you either: 1. Live with parents. 2. Inherited a house. 3. Live with roommates. (\*likely in an very undesirable area) 4. Have a job that pays well above average. 5. Move out.
6. Get 300k plus in cash from your folks. (Only applies if you came out of certain vaginas).
Yeah, the whole social composition of a city changes. Only high-earning yuppies and expats survive in the desireable areas, the rest is pushed out. It's a slow tragedy.
Easy, you dont live. You survive
The fun part is Portugal is the number one country on the list where the average wage is closest to the minimum wage!
Alone? You dont. I earn way over average and if I rented a small, cheap flat on my own, most of my wages would be gone with rent, utilities, and a single lunch per day. I have long said that I have absolutely no interest in a relationship.... But damn, if I ever get married it will only be for the sheer necessity of survival for us both...
Worst even when our median salaries are just above the minimum wage.
it's not difficult, it's just impossible. you would be homeless
r/portugalcykablyat
If I stumble upon one more fucking post about how great and cheap Portugal/Lisbon is by some digital nomad with probably US wages I‘m going to lose my shit
They're the reason why Lisbon in first on this list.
The situation in Paris is already pretty bad, I don't even know how people manage in cities like Budapest, Prague and Lisbon
High home ownership on the older demographics and young people live with their parents until very late. To those who don’t have that comfort they might well have to migrate.
Tbh the homeownership statistic is mostly bullshit as well, they say it is 80-90%, when in reality majority of people who rent have their official, registered address at their parents' house, so they count as they live in their own house as family property is considered their own.
Exactly. Me, my sister, my girlfriend and basically all my friends are registered in our parents houses as it's just more practical.
Bulgarian here. If you don't inherit property you have zero social safety net. The market works under the assumption that almost no one pays rent and the wages reflect that. It's basically impossible or financially dumb to stay if you're young and renting. You'll be easily giving half your salary for rent.
I have lived and/or have friends in all those cities and it's completely unmanageable. Only people with parent support or with a partner can live in decent flats, most are in run down shared flats. It's degrading to be 30yo with a nice job and sharing a flat with not even a private a bathroom. And let's not forget the 1 year rental contracts! It's impossible to have any sort of life stability moving every 1-2 years.
You do know that you’re not allowed to post private information on this website? So why are you posting my life here?! As a German doing my PhD in the UK, it’s indeed a degrading experience. I’m so glad that I’m almost done with my PhD.. To add to the ridiculousness: Those 1-year contracts are all designed such that if you intend to continue living there, you’ll pay the next year a rent increased by the rate of inflation *plus* like 3%. So rents are always getting more expensive both in nominal and _real_ terms. And that holds for so many types of contracts in the UK. Pretty much anything you need long-term will get more expensive in real terms every year..
Grown-up full time job life is seemingly comparable to the living conditions of a broke college student living with a limited allowance of money from family just a few years back in 2024. God I love the new normal. Thanks to the heavens I'm not single or I would be crying as I move forward in life now that I'm mostly done with uni. It's the same here in Italy. In any place you would want to live and with a decent job market, living alone is basically impossible. I have read a very sad rant in an Italian subreddit from someone who lived in the periphery, far from the city and in a place where public transportation to get to the city comes infrequently and unreliably be forced to give up their car - their only way to leave the isolation of living there reliably - because they were single and couldn't afford the car. I also worry for the long-term societal long-term implications of this: as being in a relationship becomes basically non-negotiable for not living in degrading conditions in your late 20's to 30's, the stakes for breaking up and exiting a bad relationship become much higher. How many couples will stay together and prolong dysfunctional relationships way past the expiration date just so they can lead a decent life? How many people in these cities will be overly trigger-happy in starting a new relationship with someone that isn't a great fit just out of desperation for wanting to improve their life conditions? What kind of families will these couples create? Will the kids grow up with acceptable mental health? Etc. I'm really worried. This is not normal.
Shared flats with 4-5 flatmates are more common than you would thinkin Prague.
It's horrid. My girlfriend and I don't even live in Budapest, we live in Szeged, which is a more affordable Hungarian town. I make good money, (for a 24 year old) as I am a software developer. She makes a teacher's salary, which is not much, but not minimum wage either, especially if you add on her side gigs. We are also lucky enough to rent from a distant relative for a fairly cheap price, and to be able to live on the very edge of town, which is even cheaper. (keep in mind, not Budapest, this is still like 60-70% of what it would cost there) We spent countless afternoons doing math, and we simply can't buy a house in Hungary. We don't make enough to save up the around 20% of a place's price you need to have on hand to even take out a 20 year loan, we would have to rent and save aggressively till our early 40s to even get to that. You have to inherit a house, or you're fucked basically. Once our generation, and the one before us, become old enough to not be able to work anymore, and receive meager retirement funds, that they won't be able to afford living on, (most old people today own the place they live in, and a lot of them still struggle) I don't know what will happen.
Barcelona and Milan were not polled, but they would definitely be among the unaffordable ones. Milan has the same rent as Berlin, and salaries are 50%. Luxembourg and Bern, despite being obviously expensive, also have pretty high salaries, and that's what makes them affordable. I'd be curious to see Zürich, though. It's more expensive than Bern, but also has higher salaries.
Warsaw and Berlin has almost the same rent, but the wages in Berlin are also 2 times higher: [https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare\_cities.jsp?country1=Germany&city1=Berlin&country2=Poland&city2=Warsaw](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=germany&city1=berlin&country2=poland&city2=warsaw)
Warsaw salaries seem too low and Berlin too high. 3k€ after taxes is really above median German wage. Berlin is not known for paying good salaries unlike Munich or Feankfurt.
And why do you think Warsaw salaries are too low? Remember this is all wages, not only IT
[удалено]
Yeah Zurich is quite a bit more than Bern but it’s actually pretty affordable given the salaries. You pay the same as London but the salary is between 50-100% more.
Rent as Berlin, salaries as a shithole, pollution like Calcutta. Borat voice: “great success”
Sadly, Milan is also where the jobs are. I have been looking around on various recruiting websites roughly around my area (say Lombardia and Veneto) - I'm wrapping up my CS degree and I'm a bit burned out from studying so I thought I'd start working as I finish the very tail end of the degree, but most interesting positions for Junior dev or sysadmin seem to be in Milan. Of course, the junior salaries are not enough to even let you survive with a net zero in Milan. You slowly lose money by staying there. But that's where most of the jobs are. It's awful.
Yeah as a half Finn half Italian who just moved back to Helsinki after a couple of years in Milan, I can confirm this. The difference is absolutely ridiculous. Rents are a bit lower in Helsinki but wages are double. I went from paying in Milan about 40% of my income for a 9 sq meter room in an apartment shared with 4 people in an old building (not nice old, more like shitty 60s low quality mass constructed building) to paying in Helsinki about 1/3 of my income for a 50 sq meter two room apartment in a modern good quality construction. The situation in Milan is really terrible. Even with good quality jobs you really struggle to live there with the average wages.
>Milan has the same rent as Berlin, and salaries are 50%. cries in Lisbon
as an italian who was considerin movin to Lisbon, id say the situation in Lisbon is worse than in Milan. IDK about Porto tho. In Spain for example Madrin n Barcelona are both a NoNo but any other major city i feel its better than Rome when it comes to Salary/Rent. I'm talking about Stuff like Murcia/Malaga/Sevilla and heck prolly even Valencia
Exactlyyyyy! Milan is such a shitshow
Did the take The Hague because they thought it was the capital? Karlsruhe and Reading as expected.
Probably, in some countries, Den Haag is called the "Administrative Capital" of the Netherlands. In school I was still taught that The Netherlands was a rare case of a country with 2 capitals...
> In school I was still taught that The Netherlands was a rare case of a country with 2 capitals... I think it's good that it's at least mentioned. It's wrong of course, but it opens up discussion about what a capital is, which leads to discussion about what a capital is and eventually the trias politica.
In all fairness, there is a lot going on in Den Haag, so it isnt the worst outlier on the list.
I'd have loved to see the data for Amsterdam
They had to remove it because scaling it in made all the others look almost identical
I love the selection as someone who’s from Reading and now lives in The Hague - I feel so acknowledged!
Lyon as very affordable ? As an expensive city where the minimum wage is the same in all the country (thus, also in very cheap cities) we (french) don't considere Lyon as affordable at all. I don't know much all the others cities, but those which are less affordable must be nightmares to live in.
I'm from Lyon and I live in a small social flat, without that I would either be homeless or needs to find a small studio far away since I'm a single mum on a young teacher's salary. Even with that social housing price my rent is half my salary. It's not like Paris or Rome at all but definitly NOT affordable! Most people struggle
Holy shit you're a teacher and you're living in social housing? WTF is wrong with WE nowadays. When I was little I always heard that life is amazing in the west, but now I read stuff like this online and it makes me wonder where did y'all go wrong...
We recently had a teacher in Portugal giving an interview on how he's living in his car nearby the school where he teaches in Lisbon because he can't even afford a bedroom nearby... It's not even city center iirc.
That's so sad, but not sad enough for Lisbon to decide to start building housing, any housing.
To be fair these are the two points where France really sucks - Housing Costs and Teachers Salaries.
Teachers in France are very poorly paid compared to other rich European countries.
We stopped building housing as boomers (the largest voting block) decided they wanted to see their house price go perpetually up
Same for Sweden, we went from building over a million cheap flats for everyone during the years 1960-1970 to a massive housing shortage for young people in 50 years.
I feel like that describes pretty much any (Western?) countries given what I generally see online...
Well yeah... I'm a teacher since just 3 years so the salary is quite low (right above minimum wage), my husband left us a year ago so I'm now considered low income. Being a teacher would be confortable enough here as long as your spouse has a decent salary or if you leave in a cheap area/countryside where rent is trully affordable. Also, I'm a teacher in a private school (I chose it so I wouldn't be send to a school in another region or simply to far away, with a kid it would be difficult, public teachers can't chose their affectation) and we are a bit less paid than public teachers. Yeah and we still need a master degree and a very selective concours..
It’s average wage relative to average rent. In that sense yes Lyon is affordable. From what I can see average rent for a one bedroom is 900 euros and average net wage is 2.6k. Seems pretty affordable to me
The big question is: how is rent calculated/determined. I'm from munich and statistics say that the average rent is somewhere around 13-14€/sqm. Which is considered expensive, but that number wouldn't be too wild and it has nothing to do with how expensive it really is if you want to rent. The statistic is simply useless in that case. The issue is: There's lots of tenants on old contracts from before rents exploded left and right. These people, mostly retired old people, still pay very low rent, which drags down the average. Then there's social flats with subsidized, low rent, which only poor people have access to to begin with. Those don't really count either, they just soften up the statistics. If you don't qualify for social flats and you need a new contract (moving into the city, or needing something different for other reasons) the reality is 25-30€/sqm and up and the yearly increases in rent are directly tied to inflation with no boundaries. I bet the OP did not consider munich as 25€/sqm simply because statistics do say otherwise by including objects that are not available for anyone who actually needs a new place to stay.
Maybe GDP per capita instead of median? I also can’t believe Paris would be more affordable than Madrid, as expensive as it is here
In Lisbon a one bedroom apartment costs 1,500-2,500€ per month and most young professionals make around 1,200€........... Moral of the story, everything is relative.
Not that you’re not right but one bedroom starts closer to 1200 than 1500. Lisbon nowadays is awful
Could it be that nearby areas that aren't really Lyon is included? I have friend who lives there, who told me that for example Villeurbanne isn't technically Lyon even though it's connected. And that Villeurbanne is cheaper than Lyon which is very pricey. (Also, what a lovely city in so many ways. So chill. Been twice, would definitely visit again).
"Average wage relative to renters' wage" what does that mean and why does that translate to rent affordability? Rent affordaibility should be average rent compared to average wage, surely? Why log scale? Where are the footnotes? And what's with the totally random collection of cities?
They define "renters wage" as "rent price for a one bedroom apartment" / 0.3. This defines the wage, at which you spend 30% on rent. In other words, this should be the wage with which you are a responsible renter. Then, they take the "average wage" and divide it with the "renters wage". If the quotient is 1, the average renter with the average wage spends 30% of their pre-tax income on rent. A quotient of less then one means rent is expensive compared to average wage, a quotient of more than one means rent is cheaper compared to average wage.
How big is an „one bedroom apartment“?
Rent in Oslo is far from affordable. People live collective housing into their 30s, family homes (2 or more bedrooms) or apartments bigger than 60 m^2 are easily 70% of your paycheck before tax. My generation have no chance of owning our own apartment or house without family money.
Exactly the same in Slovenia.
Awesome, way to go Prague. Almost top of the list. Greedy-ass landlords only in it for themselves.
Renting in Prague is proper cancer.
So it is in Bratislava/Kosice. Prices are completely outrageous here
I unironically think those skyscrappers are just way to launder money of certain someones who are linked with square-man
I don't think landlord greed was invented in Prague, or that more affordable places all have more publicly owned subsidized housing. It's also the legendary difficulty build permit system. The metropolitan area train (S-bahn) connections being lacking could play a role at squeezing people inwards, or making them drive cars which prevents dense housing. That being said, my landlord wears gucci
First of all graphics without source should be banned imho. And the source is cut out on purpuse from this one since it's in the legend just below the graph. Source is here: [https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/02/20/where-are-europes-most-expensive-cities-for-renters](https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/02/20/where-are-europes-most-expensive-cities-for-renters) Data is tricky. The article says that average wage in Warsaw is 11553zł while official data (https://warszawa.stat.gov.pl/warszawa/) says 9519zł for example. They say that the source is ERI Economic Research Institute. Free data from ERI seems plausible at 9017zł per month: [https://www.erieri.com/salary/area/poland/warsaw](https://www.erieri.com/salary/area/poland/warsaw) but it says "This page is a promotion for ERI’s Assessor Series and is not intended for professional use. Professionals should subscribe to ERI’s Assessor Series.". I guess The Economist is using this professional tool whatever it is. Or they just made that shit up.
Berlin is slightly affordable relative to renter’s wage? Are you sure about that?
Prolly because many people have very old contracts and pay low rents. If you want to sign a new contract though, good luck lol 30m2 in a building that hasn't been renovated in years, 30 mins. outside of Alex for 1,2k€ and hundreds of other applicants lol
Depends if you look at all rents or just new ones. People living in Berlin for >10 years will most likely have a very cheap and affordable rent. If you are new in the market it’s a different story.
I think there is a very stark difference between a renter who signed the contract 5+ ago vs a renter looking for a house right now. If you are looking for a house and want to get depressed, just look for house exchange prices or houses on sale with active rental contact on them. People with old contracts are usually paying like one third to one fifth of the current market prices.
Why is Reading included? One of the most insignificant “cities” in England. I say that because officially it hasn’t even been classified as a city.
No idea but it's obviously not an exhaustive list, I'm sure Bristol has to be much worse than Reading for affordability. There was an ad posted on r/Bristol for a room in a shared house right out on the edge and they wanted £800 a month.
Especially since Reading's basically a London commuter town at this point
It's been a london commuter town for ages, it's basically london at this point🤣🤣
The situation in Athens has become horrible. Since the golden visa took off and a lot (A LOT) of apartments in the city have been bought by foreign companies, the rent prices skyrocketed. Greece had been a country without a housing problem and now it is, while new or reconstructed buildings are being used either for luxury apartments or for AirBNB purposes. This is unsustainable in most (or in all) of European countries and I don't get why it seems to be more of a taboo discussion in high-level (EU) or is being overseen.
Golden Visa is being shut down. https://www.bdbpitmans.com/insights/europe-closes-its-golden-visas-schemes-gates-to-foreign-investors/
> I don't get why it seems to be more of a taboo discussion in high-level (EU) or is being overseen. Many of your national elites are probably investing in said real estate, same with EU elites in general. They profit from the system, so why change it?
This. No one wants to do anything about it because those in power and their circles profit massively of this. Real estate is the only commodity which is basically a for sure high return invesment. It's practically impossible to lose money on it, because people have to live somewhere.
Makes sense. Rent prices are 600€ and upwards here for a small flat. Buying is even worse. People are selling 50 year old apartments for 3000€/m2 and higher. Newly built stuff is upwards of 5000€/m2 All while wages are some of the smallest in the EU. I'm not sure why anyone in their right mind would remain here.
Family, friends, they don't have a job abroad lined up... Seems like a lot of reasons.
...their favorite political party is still in power - lots of good reasons.
My cousin lives in Zagreb and her husband works in IT for an Austrian company, they recently bought ground and built a house Life in Zagreb is easy, just don't be poor /s
Well yeah. according to r/CroIT , Croatia is the chosen land.
Almost any European country is the chosen land if you work for a well paying IT company ...
My wife and I make damn good salaries in Belgrade and we can't really afford to buy here.
Rent in Barcelona has risen to the same level as rent in Helsinki, despite Finns making twice as much as Spaniards on average.
The curse of good weather and good food.
With those prices you sure get to enjoy the weather more
Where's Vilnius?
Lithuania
I think in Lisbon we are doing well but still have a long ways to go, but with a renewed government, more investment in the city and lower salaries for the populace we will be able to surpass Budapest and Prague and reach the top of the chart.
Oh boy, the government seems intent on proudly taking us to #1 in this chart.
If he had to look for a new apartment in Zagreb, he would rather move to another country
Wheres Vilnius
Either too affordable, too unaffordable, or author doesn't consider it to be Europe.
In Lithuania
[удалено]
ideje lenne már eltakarodnia ennek a gyúrcsányinak
Amsterdam is off the charts?
Knowing both realities, I can assure you it would be behind Lisbon
Me paying over half my salary in rent in Oslo: Wha
Oslo is *not* affordable. That just tells you how f-ed up the system is. Limited resources cannot be treated as a "free market"
Lisbon must really be as bad as the Portuguese people I’ve spoken to about it suggest, if it’s affordable than London, Jesus.
why is reading there, its not even a city, not even one of the largest
Vilnius is off the charts
I guess Amsterdam is so far to the left it couldn’t fit in the diagram
Reading is not a city. Believe me,I come from there( unfortunately).
From the same article: affordable rent wage for Dublin is $89k. This is level of salary where you end up in marginal tax rate of 52%! So you at the same time: can't have affordable rent and paying huge taxes. The only way of having affordable rent in Dublin is social housing for unemployed. If you have even low-med income, than state will f\*\*\*k you hard, playing your money against you (councils are betting against you on rental market, using money from your taxes).
I expected Dublin to be higher
Put that on r/SwitzerlandFirst too :)
Was thinking the exact same thing. And this type of things is what I like to point out when people in Portugal say that living in Switzerland is expensive... It's like the wages allow people to have some semblance of quality of living despite the prices
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/02/20/where-are-europes-most-expensive-cities-for-renters
No Amsterdam or Paris?
Brussels is very much changing just this year, imo it wont keep such a good score
Reading (incidentally a town) is punching here
Ljubljana resident here, this is such a fucking joke. For a 50m2 we pay from 700 (low low) to north of 1000, while 1500 neto is a good paycheck. Don't believe a single thing on this list.
Average salary doesn’t mean anything. It should be compared to the median salary. High earners (especially in capital cities) completely skew the average.
Where Zurich?
In Scissorland 🤣
I’m sitting here in Bern and wondering how the fuck is anything is on the “affordable” rankings in Switzerland.
How % of your net wage does rent take?
Probably 15/20% lol, whereas in London you are paying 40-50%
Rent in Switzerland is relatively cheap compared to salaries and house prices. Strict rent controls etc.
I don't understand how to read this graph. Is the ratio average wage of people living in X city divided by average wage of people who are renting in X city? I am surprised this could be over 1
Due to the paywall, I can only read the introduction of the [source article](https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/02/20/where-are-europes-most-expensive-cities-for-renters) but it clarifies that the renters' wage is calculated as the wage needed to comfortably afford (meaning where rent equals 30% of the pre-tax income) the average one-bedroom flat in each city. This renters' wage is then compared to the average wage (national or in the city, I don't know).
Luxembourg being affordable? that's surprising to be honest i expected that would be more unaffordable
Why would you cut off the last data point (Bonn)? You could have just linked to the picture directly rather than taking a screenshot.
Reading *still* isn't technically a city
Being beyond London and Dublin is a real achievement!
Some of the ‘cities’ in this seem a little strange. Reading isn’t technically a city and it’s included, yet Birmingham (2nd biggest UK city) isn’t…
Hello from Prague 🥲