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Median Rent by Country: Avoid the City vs. National Average Trap

2026-10-10

Rent comparison title card with city and map sketches

This page gives you a sourced snapshot of typical median rents by country and example city, plus clear rules for comparing them responsibly. We draw on Eurostat’s market rents booklet and OECD housing indicators, and we offer downloadable country data through our own datasets. Expect a comparison table, interpretation tips, and affordability context below.

TL;DR:

  • Asking rents reflect vacant listings, achieved rents reflect signed leases, and rent indexes track change over time rather than monthly cash costs.
  • Compare figures only after matching reference year, city or national scope, dwelling size, tenancy coverage, currency basis, and treatment of utilities and service charges.
  • Measure affordability by dividing monthly rent by disposable income and multiplying by 100; the commonly cited cost burden threshold is 30%, but context matters.
  • The Global Money Dataset offers downloadable official rent, income, and inflation figures for 128 countries.
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Table of Contents

1. Median rent by country and example city

Rent levels vary enormously across countries, and the gap often comes down to city choice as much as national averages. The table below pulls representative one-bed and two-bed monthly rent figures from official sources, converted to USD at each source’s own reference date.

Several country rows above show the Eurostat booklet as the source without a specific figure quoted here, because the full city-by-city breakdown sits inside the original PDF rather than in the summary text we can safely restate. We encourage you to open the Eurostat market rents booklet directly for the exact local currency and EUR figures per city, since that document is built precisely for this kind of lookup and updates each year with a new reference period.

What the available figures do make clear:

2. How to read rent figures without getting misled

Not every rent number means the same thing, and mixing definitions is the fastest way to reach a wrong conclusion. An asking rent reflects what landlords list a vacant unit for, while an achieved rent captures what tenants actually pay once leases are signed, often lower. A rent index tracks change over time rather than a cash level, so an index value cannot substitute for a monthly rent table. Market rent describes open-market pricing, while social rent covers subsidized or regulated housing that often sits well below market levels.

Before you compare two countries, check:

OECD guidance recommends showing all of these alongside any rent figure, precisely because omitting them produces comparisons that look rigorous but are not.

Pro Tip: Stick to same-year, same-dwelling-type comparisons whenever you can; a one-bed figure from one country against a two-bed figure from another will always distort your conclusion.

3. Why rent-to-income matters more than rent alone

A $1,500 monthly rent means very different things in a city where median disposable income supports it easily and one where it eats most of a paycheck. OECD and Eurostat both recommend pairing rent levels with income data rather than comparing nominal rent alone.

To build a rent-to-income ratio for a representative city:

  1. Take the city’s median monthly rent for your chosen dwelling size from an official source.
  2. Divide it by median monthly disposable income for the same city or country.
  3. Multiply by 100 to express the result as a percentage.
  4. Compare that percentage, not the raw rent figure, across cities.

A commonly cited affordability threshold treats rent above 30% of income as a cost burden, a benchmark widely used in housing policy discussions, though actual sustainable levels vary by household size and local context.

Household size, the share of social housing in a market, and seasonal rent swings in tourist-heavy cities can all shift this ratio, so treat it as a starting point rather than a final verdict.

4. A checklist for comparing rent across countries

Running a fair comparison takes a few extra minutes but saves you from a misleading headline number.

If you are weighing renting against buying in a given market, our analysis of house price growth since 2015 gives useful context on how ownership costs have moved relative to rental trends.

5. Why matched-year, official-source data changes the answer

5. Why matched-year, official-source data changes the answer — overview diagram

Working with macroeconomic datasets across dozens of countries teaches you one lesson fast: the headline number is only as good as its footnote. A rent figure without a reference date or dwelling type attached is not comparable to anything, no matter how official it looks on the surface.

That is why we build our datasets exclusively from official statistical sources rather than aggregator estimates, and why we tag every figure with its reference period. If you want to run your own comparisons, our interactive widgets let you build custom country views without wrestling with spreadsheets.

— Torstein

6. Get the full country-level rent and income tables

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A few ways to put it to work:

FAQ

What is the difference between median and average rent?

Median rent is the middle value in a sorted list of rents, so extreme luxury or extremely cheap units do not skew it. Average rent is calculated by summing all rents and dividing by the count, which a handful of very expensive units can pull upward.

How do I compare rent affordability between two countries fairly?

Match dwelling size and city type first, convert to a common currency using the same reference date, then divide rent by median disposable income rather than comparing raw rent figures. OECD guidance recommends this income-adjusted approach over nominal comparisons.

Where can I download rent and income data for multiple countries at once?

Our Global Money Dataset offers downloadable country-level rent, income, and inflation figures sourced from official statistics. You can also explore interactive comparisons through our widgets without downloading a file.

Why did rents rise across so many countries recently?

Eurostat reported that rents increased across EU countries through the fourth quarter of 2025, part of a broader multi-year upward trend tied to housing supply constraints. The release recommends viewing these increases alongside local disposable income rather than in isolation.

Sources

Differences usually come from mismatched reference dates, dwelling sizes, or whether the figure captures asking rents versus achieved rents. Eurostat and national statistics offices each document their own methodology, so checking the footnote resolves most apparent contradictions.

The figures on this site are collected from official statistics and each carries its own source and date — see /sources and the dataset. Where this article states a number, the country and ranking pages are what it should agree with.