Chart: Rental situation in Europe
According to rental platform Housing Anywhere International, Lisbon and Porto both saw a 25 percent increase in the cost of renting an apartment in April to June 2023 compared to the same three-month period last year. This is an alarming rate, especially considering that local salaries (already low compared to much of the rest of Europe) are by no means rising at the same pace.
In the same period, the Hungarian capital, Budapest, saw the average apartment price rise by a staggering 43 per cent year-on-year to reach €1,100. Meanwhile, the cities of Florence and Turin in Italy, which have historically had much lower rental housing prices than other parts of the country, are starting to catch up with Florence seeing apartment rentals rise by 21 percent (to an average of €1,700). Turin: 12.5 percent increase (€900).
There are several phenomena at work here. First, Europe is suffering from a housing shortage, which is causing the cost of renting an apartment to rise significantly in many cities on the continent. But at the same time, new work-from-home policies brought about by the Covid-19 era mean that more “mobile talent”, or young skilled workers, are moving abroad, pushing up prices.
According to the report, the ranking of the largest annual changes varies by room type. When it comes to apartments, Budapest (42.9 percent), The Hague (27.8 percent), Utrecht (25.8 percent), Porto (25 percent) and Lisbon (15.8 percent) are the most extreme cases out of the 23 cities analysed. .
In terms of annual change of private room, they are: Lisbon (29.4%), The Hague (28.6%), Berlin (22.6%), Amsterdam (18.8%) and Frankfurt am Main (16.9%). . While for studios they are: Lisbon (70.3 percent), Florence (33.3 percent), Hamburg (27.4 percent), The Hague (23.8 percent) and Porto (23.3 percent). It is worth noting that both Lisbon and The Hague appear in all three rounds of the top five.
The following chart is based on an analysis of more than 64,000 properties in 23 European cities. The following chart shows the average rental price for a fully furnished one-bedroom apartment that mostly targets mobile talent, i.e. young professionals and international students between the ages of 18 and 35. More than 95.8 percent of the properties analyzed were fully furnished and 58 percent included bills.
