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Housing takes up a large part of household budgets, and this share is growing across Europe, according to Eurostat. High rent prices in city centres add extra pressure, especially for low-income earners and those on minimum wage.<\/p>\n
In some European countries and cities, rent can consume nearly an entire salary. In fact, in certain places, average net salaries are not enough to cover the rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the city centre, according to Deutsche Bank Research Institute.<\/p>\n
So, which countries and cities in Europe have the best rent-to-salary ratio? Where is rent simply unaffordable? And how do European cities compare to global ones in terms of housing costs and salaries?<\/p>\n
The Mapping the World\u2019s Prices report compares net monthly salaries and rents for one-bedroom apartments in city centres across 69 cities worldwide. Euronews Business takes a closer look at the 28 European cities included in the report along with a few others for broader comparison.<\/p>\n
Where are the highest salaries in Europe?<\/p>\n
In 2025, average monthly net salaries range from just \u20ac151 in Cairo to \u20ac7,307 in Geneva, with Zurich close behind at \u20ac7,127. This makes Switzerland the highest-paying country overall. <\/p>\n
In Europe, Istanbul has the lowest salary at \u20ac855, followed by \u20ac1,044 in Athens. People in the Northern and Western European cities are well-paid. The net salaries are above \u20ac4,000 in Luxembourg, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Frankfurt.<\/p>\n
Rome has the lowest average salary among the capital cities of Europe\u2019s five largest economies, at \u20ac2,046. Madrid follows slightly higher at \u20ac2,193.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Salaries are significantly higher in Berlin (\u20ac3,565), Paris (\u20ac3,630), and London (\u20ac3,637), with only minimal differences among the UK, France, and Germany.<\/p>\n
Salaries are also high in US cities, which make up five of the top 11 globally.<\/p>\n
Which European cities have the highest rents?<\/p>\n
Rents for one-bedroom apartments in city centres vary widely, ranging from as low as \u20ac189 in Cairo to \u20ac3,792 ($4,143) in New York. US cities dominate the top end of the scale.<\/p>\n
In Europe, the highest rent is in London at \u20ac2,732 (\u00a32,365), while the lowest is in Athens at just \u20ac595.<\/p>\n
In Zurich, Dublin, Amsterdam, and Geneva, rents also exceed \u20ac2,000, while in Istanbul and Budapest, they remain below \u20ac900.<\/p>\n
Lisbon and Istanbul: Salary doesn\u2019t cover the rent<\/p>\n
The percentage of salary spent on rent is a more useful measure. It shows how much disposable income<\/strong><\/a> is left after paying for accommodation. The rent-to-salary ratio ranges from 24% in Bangalore to 125% in Cairo.<\/p>\n A ratio of 100% means the entire salary goes to rent. Anything above that means nothing is left in the pocket or extra income is needed to cover rent.<\/p>\n In Europe, rent-to-salary ratio differs from 29% in Geneva to 116% in Lisbon. Besides the Portuguese capital, the ratio is also slightly above 100% in Istanbul (101%). This means the average net salary is not enough to pay the rent for a one-bedroom apartment in either Lisbon or Istanbul.<\/p>\n Single earners need to spend three-quarters of their salary on rent in London (75%), as well as in Barcelona and Madrid (both at 74%). In Milan, the ratio is also high at 71%.<\/p>\n More than half of the average salary is also spent on rent in several other cities: Rome (65%), Dublin (62%), Athens (57%), Warsaw (56%), Prague (54%), and Budapest (52%).<\/p>\n Where is the lowest rent-to-salary ratios?<\/strong><\/p>\n Geneva (29%) is the only European city where the rent-to-salary ratio is below 30%. Following that, there are five more European cities where single earners spend less than two-fifths, or 40%, of their salary on rent. They include Luxembourg and Frankfurt (both at 34%), Zurich and Helsinki (both at 35%), and Vienna (38%).<\/p>\n Except for Helsinki<\/strong><\/a>, these examples do not mean that rent is cheap in these cities. Instead, they reflect higher salaries, which reduce the percentage of income spent on rent.<\/p>\n Among the capital cities of the top five European economies, Berlin has the lowest rent-to-salary ratio, with residents spending 40% of their average income on rent. Paris follows the German capital at 45%. London has the highest ratio at 75%, followed by Madrid at 74% and Rome at 65%.<\/p>\n This ratio in other major cities is as follows: Dublin (62%), Athens (57%), Amsterdam (49%), Stockholm (46%), Edinburgh (44%), Copenhagen (43%), and Oslo (42%).<\/p>\n In the global list, other cities where the salary does not cover the rent include Bogota (120%), Mexico City (118%), and S\u00e3o Paulo (102%).<\/p>\n In some cities, while the rent can just be paid, there is almost nothing left from the salary\u2014this includes Rio de Janeiro (100%), Manila (94%), Buenos Aires (88%), and Mumbai (84%).<\/p>\n The rent-to-salary ratio in New York is 81%, making it the highest among US cities.<\/p>\n How much is left after paying the rent?<\/strong><\/p>\n Globally, the highest disposable incomes after paying rent are found in two Swiss cities: Geneva (\u20ac5,174) and Zurich (\u20ac4,638).<\/p>\n The lowest is also in Europe, with Lisbon at \u2013\u20ac202, meaning the average salary is not enough to cover the rent. In Istanbul, a single earner needs to find an extra \u20ac13 to pay the rent.<\/p>\n Besides the two Swiss cities, disposable income after rent is also above \u20ac2,000 in six more European cities: Luxembourg (\u20ac3,725), Frankfurt (\u20ac2,726), Copenhagen (\u20ac2,421), Amsterdam (\u20ac2,194), Oslo (\u20ac2,140) and Helsinki (\u20ac2,021).<\/p>\n An OECD report shows that bigger cities come with higher housing costs<\/strong><\/a>. Spending on housing and utilities<\/strong><\/a> has risen over the past 20 years in the EU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ADVERTISEMENT Housing takes up a large part of household budgets, and this share is growing across Europe, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[105858,13180,2000,299,5187,51706,27562,105857,17567],"class_list":{"0":"post-281627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-average-salary","9":"tag-capital","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-income","14":"tag-liveable-cities","15":"tag-not-afford","16":"tag-rent-prices"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114895124293286781","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}