Rental prices have skyrocketed around the world over the past few years, especially in urban hotspots, which have never come cheap. Paying a hefty premium is now the norm if you want to live where the action is, but some locations are so absurdly expensive that only the wealthiest have avoided being priced out.
We've examined the world's largest cost of living database for the average rental costs for one-bedroom city-centre apartments in the top 25 countries.
Click or scroll to discover where your nation ranks in the 25 most expensive places to rent an apartment around the world...
Operating out of Serbia, the planet's biggest cost of living database “relies on user inputs and manually collected data from authoritative sources” to calculate average prices in locations around the world.
Numbeo mainly crowd-sources its data from over 823,000 contributors, supplementing their info, which is continuously flowing in, with data from reputable organisations, including government institutions. To ensure accuracy, the data from these official sources is given three times more weight than the user-submitted info – and it's updated twice a year.
We have taken a snapshot of the data which is accurate at the time of publication but inclusions, prices and rankings are all subject to change. All prices are given in US dollars, British pounds and each the country's currency.
Panama is the most expensive country to rent in Latin America. Prices in the nation have increased by 12% over the past year and a one-bedroom apartment in a city centre now averages $971 (£711) a month.
Panama is a mega-popular destination for North American retirees and the constant influx pushes up prices, though they remain relatively affordable for US and Canadian expats. Monthly rental costs for a one-bedroom property vary dramatically however, averaging from as low as $300 (£219) in the centre of smaller cities such as Santiago and Chitré, to $2,500 (£1,826) in Panama City's most upscale neighbourhoods.
Renting a one-bedroom apartment in the heart of a Belgian city comes in at around €854 ($1k/£738) a month but prices have shot up of late. Higher interest rates have led to a decline in new construction and conversion projects, which has squeezed supply, according to a recent study from property federations CIB and Federia.
The research also revealed the most expensive places to rent a home in the country, where 27.5% of the population are tenants according to Eurostat, the statistics body of the European Union. The leafy Brussels district of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre is top, followed by Ixelles and Uccle.
Sweden has more renters than Belgium proportionally, with 35.8% of the population living in leased accommodation. The nation has had stringent rent controls in place for over 100 years. But while the caps have no doubt benefited existing tenants, they've also contributed to housing shortages and spawned a subletting black market, where prices can be ridiculous.
The average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in a city centre in the country stands at 8,806 Swedish krona ($983/£720).
Renting is even more popular in Austria, where a one-bedroom apartment in the heart of town costs an average of €867 ($1,038/£758) a month. Tenants make up a sizeable 48.6% of the nation's population, one of the highest proportions in the world.
Austria has very good social housing and a quarter of Vienna's residents lease their home from the local authority at an affordable price, according to UK newspaper The Guardian. But private-sector rents in the affluent city centres are on the high side, raising the average rent for the country overall.
Germany is one of only three countries in the top 25 and a few in the world where renters outnumber homeowners, making up 52.4% of the population according to the data from Numbeo.
In contrast to Austria, social housing is thin on the ground, with only 2.7% of the housing stock owned and leased by local authorities, according to Eurostat. The vast majority rent in the private sector, where prices have gone from being attractively affordable to prohibitively expensive.
Between 2010 and 2022, rents in large German cities jumped by 70%. The average price per month for a one-bedroom apartment in the centre of an urban area is €823 ($970/£710).
Compared to Germany, a much smaller proportion of the Portuguese population rents their homes, at 22.2%. Only 2% of properties are social housing and rents have steeply increased in 2024, averaging 9.1% across the county.
The digital nomads that have descended en masse are reportedly behind the rise, or at the least considered a major contributory factor, with demand higher than ever for urban accommodation following the 1-year visa programme for people who work remotely.
A one-bedroom apartment in a city centre in the nation now costs €896 ($1,056/£773) per month to rent on average.
Cyprus, where around 30.4% of the population reside in rented accommodation, is also grappling with a housing affordability crisis, despite government measures to tackle the problem. The typical monthly cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment in a city centre in the country is now €845 ($996/£729).
According to Eurostat research, Cyprus has some of the poorest housing stock in the EU, with 39% of people living in houses with "a leaking roof, damp walls, floors or foundation, or rot in window frames or floor". Plus, 11% of respondents said they'd experienced housing difficulties in their lifetime, well above the average for the EU as a whole.
Malta's rental market is much smaller both literally and relatively. Tenants constitute just 17.4% of the population in this country of homeowners. And as many as 90% of renters are foreign nationals, with workers in Malta's flourishing iGaming industry making up a large share. The online betting business contributed 12% of the country's GDP in 2024.
Similar to the situation in Portugal, rental prices have amped up as result of increased demand from expats, with the typical monthly price for a one-bedroom apartment in a city centre now €1,016 ($1,198/£877).
Rental costs have also been surging in Spain, where tenants comprise 24.6% of the population according to Eurostat data from 2022. Prices have hit record highs, especially in urban areas.
An increase in short-term tourist lets has reduced the supply of long-term rental properties, compounded by new regulations that make it an unattractive prospect for landlords. And only 1.1% of the nation's housing stock is made up of affordable local authority rentals, putting further pressure on prices.
Now, the average price to rent a one-bedroom apartment in a Spanish city centre clocks in at €883 ($1,041/£762) a month.
According to the country's 2023 census, the proportion of renters has decreased in New Zealand. Homeowners now account for 66% of the population, up from the 64.5% recorded in the 2018 census.
Rental prices may have surged in recent years but they have fallen in 2024. Amid the cost-of-living crisis and rising unemployment, more young people are migrating, staying longer with their parents or living with relatives – factors that have increased the housing supply. Currently, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in a city centre is NZ$1,948 ($1,175/£860) per month.
Norway's renter-to-homeowner ratio is 20.6% tenants to 79.4% homeowners, so much fewer people in the country rent in a relative sense compared to neighbouring Denmark.
Rental costs have risen by 20% over the past couple of years, with Oslo leading the way, followed by Bergen and Stavanger. The increases are being driven by steeper energy costs, as well as a dearth of supply brought about by higher taxes and the conversion of long-duration rental properties into short-term holiday lets.
Renting a one-bedroom apartment in the middle of an urban area in the nation now costs 13,000 Norwegian kroner ($1,465k/£1,072) a month on average.
According to the OECD Better Life Index, Denmark outperforms most countries for jobs, education, health, environmental quality, social connections, civic engagement and life satisfaction. Copenhagen, in particular, has been recognised multiple times as one of the world's most livable cities but is notoriously expensive like the other Scandinavian cities.
The typical monthly rental cost for a one-bedroom city-centre apartment in Denmark is around 8,325 Danish kroner ($1,160/£849). The rental market is highly regulated and tenants make up more than 40% of the population.
While the average rent figure isn't modest, Denmark is actually big on affordable social housing, which constitutes over 21% of its residential units, well above the EU average of 7.5%.
The proportion of renters is rising in Israel. According to the last count from the country's statistics bureau, 32.4% of Israeli households rent, up from 30.4% in 2019.
Israel's conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah have upended the country's housing market in various ways. Among other consequences, construction has all but halted and war evacuees fleeing Israel's northern border have pushed up rental prices, with the monthly cost of a one-bedroom apartment in a city centre in the nation now averaging 4,501 Israeli shekels ($1,457k/£1,067).
Canada has 33% of the population living in leased accommodation. Montréal leads Canada's cities with over 63% of households occupied by renters. Richmond, BC, saw the largest growth, with renters rising from 17.6% to 28.7% in five years. Ageing populations have also driven rental demand, with seniors aged 65+ increasingly renting, notably in Terrebonne, QC.
Rental costs ballooned to record highs post-pandemic but they've recently started to decline. According to the Rentals.ca property site, prices fell 1.2% year-on-year in October 2024, the first annual drop since July 2021. In any case, rents remain high, averaging CA$1,819 ($1,330k/£974k) per month for a one-bedroom apartment in a city centre.
Renters, who make up 35% of the British population, have also been hit hard by rising prices post-pandemic. According to the UK's statistics office, costs climbed sharply as people flocked back to urban areas following the pandemic. A lack of supply and stricter regulations for landlords have kept the momentum going, with rents in London up 26% since 2022.
At the current time, renting a one-bedroom apartment in a UK city centre costs an average of $1,389 (£1,017) per month.
Australia is enduring a rental affordability crisis the country's Courier Mail newspaper has described as “insane”. The 31% of the population who live in leased accommodation have been slammed with hike after hike in recent years, with rampant housing market speculation reportedly to blame to a large extent.
According to news.com.au, median rents have surged 51% since the COVID-19 pandemic, with only slight growth in social housing. In the first quarter of 2024, rents were 7.8% higher than the same period in 2023, typically the year’s most expensive season. Annual increases hit all capital cities except Hobart, where rents remained stable. Perth recorded the highest rise at 9.9%.
The typical monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in a city centre now stands at AU$2,206 ($1.5k/£1.1k).
Around 29% of the population of the Netherlands rent and the country has the highest share of social housing in Europe, with affordable rental properties comprising over 34% of the total residential stock. Still, social housing rents spiked over the summer of 2024, the biggest increase for years. Meanwhile, private-sector rentals just keep getting more and more expensive.
All this makes for a budget-busting average cost, with the typical rent for a one-bedroom apartment in a Dutch city centre now €1,438 ($1.6k/£1.2k) per month.
A similar proportion of the population of Qatar are homeowners at 69.1% according to CEOWORLD Magazine, with renters making up the remainder.
Rental prices in Qatar have been falling since the country hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup. A construction boom linked to the event has led to a glut of properties, driving prices down. Nonetheless, renting remains expensive in Qatar, with a one-bedroom city-centre apartment averaging 6,208 Qatari riyals ($1.6k/£1.2k) a month.
Renters make up a much larger percentage of the population in the United Arab Emirates, comfortably outnumbering homeowners at 58.3%. This is largely down to a low home ownership rate among the country's large expat population, while the rate is reportedly as high as 90% for UAE nationals.
Strong demand has sent rental prices soaring in 2024, but with 100,000 new properties expected to come on the market in Dubai alone over the next year, costs are likely to level off. At the moment, the average monthly price for a one-bedroom rental apartment in a city-centre location is 5,403 dirhams ($1.4k/£1.1k).
The 29.5% of the population of Ireland who live in rented accommodation are at the mercy of escalating costs. Years of underinvestment in housing following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis coupled with rapid population growth have resulted in a shortage of residential property, jacking up prices. The cost of renting continues to rise, too, in spite of government efforts to rein in the rental market.
Currently, a one-bedroom apartment in a city centre in the nation commands an average monthly rent of €1,524 ($1.7k/£1.3k). Also, apartments make up just 18.7% of Ireland's housing stock, the lowest proportion in the EU.
The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 is among the chief underlying causes for skyrocketing rent prices in the USA. According to NPR's Jennifer Ludden, the sub-prime mortgage crisis that kicked it off put a lot of builders out of business: "Really, for a decade, economists say the U.S. did not build enough [houses]... and that has led to an incredibly tight market," she said.
Fierce pandemic demand, followed by high inflation and rising mortgage rates, have further tightened the US rental market. Needless to say, renting is now super-expensive, where a one-bedroom city-centre apartment costs $1,687 (£1.2k) per month typically.
And with the proportion of Americans living in leased accommodation on the rise – the figure currently stands at 34.4% – the outlook for renters is pretty bleak.
Rental prices in Luxembourg have inflated dramatically over the past few years, too. A one-bedroom city-centre apartment in the wealthy Grand Duchy now comes in €1,707 ($2k/£1.4k) a month on average.
Tenants account for 27.6% of the population, with the number on the increase. Reflecting the situation in the US somewhat, high interest and mortgage rates appear to be prompting many prospective home buyers to rent instead, revving up demand and prices in the rental sector, according to the Luxembourg-based financial publication Delano.
The quintessential country of renters, Switzerland has the biggest share of people living in leased accommodation in Europe (around 57.7% of the population). It also has the continent's highest proportion of apartments. The primary driver for this is the nation's eye-watering house prices rather than a cultural preference to rent, though Swiss tenants do enjoy strong rights.
Be that as it may, renting in Switzerland certainly isn't a cheap option. And prices have gone through the roof lately amid a housing shortage stemming from a decline in new construction and increases in migration. Currently, a one-bedroom apartment in a city centre in the country will set you back 1,632 Swiss francs ($1.9k/£1.4k) a month on average.
Listed as a country by Numbeo, Hong Kong has long been infamous for its sky-high housing costs. Limited space and perennially brisk demand from its large population of renters, who almost outnumber homeowners, have created an exceedingly competitive market, propelling prices to staggering levels.
This has led to a trend for micro-apartments and even ultra-narrow 'coffin homes' for the least well-off residents who are struggling to survive in this fiercely competitive market.
Renting a one-bedroom apartment in the core of the special administrative region of China now costs HK$17,087 ($2.2k/£1.6k) per month on average.
Similar to its crowded counterpart Hong Kong, Singapore has a tiny land area, a dense, growing population – and a booming economy, creating the perfect storm for astronomical rental prices. A post-pandemic explosion in demand sent prices stratospheric and they remain mega-high, despite softening this year.
Interestingly, the home ownership rate in the city-state is very high at 89.7% and locals have access to affordable social housing and various benefits, so the high prices tend to affect expats more. Right now, a one-bedroom apartment in central Singapore averages a punishing 3,651 Singapore dollars ($2.8k/£2.1k) a month on average.
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