Resource context and authorship
This article, published by the European Data Journalism Network (EDJNet) and written by journalist Kata Moravecz, examines rising rents across major European cities and how this is driving a widening housing affordability crisis. It compiles comparative data for 26 cities to explain who is most affected and which policy approaches appear to mitigate the impacts.
The scale of rent unaffordability in European cities
Across the cities analysed, rent increases are reported as widespread and are contributing to “some form of housing crisis” in most major urban areas. The article highlights that the burden falls most heavily on low-income workers and people in unstable employment, who may have to spend a large share of income on housing or may be unable to afford market rents at all. A commonly cited financial guideline—spending no more than 30% of income on rent—is presented as increasingly unattainable for both low- and middle-income earners in many European cities.
How the investigation measured affordability
To compare affordability, the investigation combined rent and wage datasets. For rents, it used Housing Anywhere’s city rent index, which is based on listings appearing in the period and typically reflects furnished, relatively better-quality units that may include some bills; it does not capture the cheapest, poor-quality accommodation or social housing. For wages, it used Salary Explorer, which is based on self-reported incomes; this can diverge from official statistics but can include people outside structured employment or working part-time. Using these sources, the article calculated wage-to-rent ratios for different housing types (room, studio, apartment) using both the lowest and median wages in each city, and it supplemented the Housing Anywhere coverage with additional price data for Belgrade, Bucharest, and Dublin.
Key findings: low-wage renters are priced out almost everywhere
The results show that, in every city in the dataset, the average apartment rent is unaffordable for a low-wage earner. The article highlights extreme cases where an apartment would cost more than 300% of a low wage earner’s salary—specifically Budapest and Lisbon. For middle-income earners, only four cities—Vienna, Turin, Helsinki, and Brussels—remain below the 30% affordability threshold for renting an apartment, while the remainder exceed it. The article also notes that in Lisbon and Budapest, advertised rents amount to around 88% of the median wage, making it difficult for a single median earner to rent alone; it cites additional ratios for Belgrade (about 58% of the average wage, based on CINS data) and Dublin (about 69%).
Why individual renters matter for urban sustainability
The analysis argues that the affordability crunch threatens the functioning of cities by pushing out individuals who rent on their own and other essential groups such as young workers, cleaners, and gig-economy workers. When housing near workplaces becomes unaffordable, long commutes become the fallback, but the article notes that long-distance commuting is often impractical due to limited transport options or limited availability of cheaper areas. The resulting labour shortages risk undermining day-to-day urban services and the overall sustainability of city economies.
What drives rents up: tourism, migration, low supply, and gentrification
The article identifies recurring structural drivers. Tourism and short-term rentals (including Airbnb) are described as a frequently cited cause, as the profitability of tourist lets can remove homes from the long-term rental market and contribute to vacancies. Budapest is given as an example, with a cited rise in uninhabited flats from 10% (2001) to 13% (2011) and 17% (2022), alongside claims that short-term rentals have contributed to sharp rent increases. Migration is also highlighted: internal migration draws residents to large labour markets (e.g., major German cities), while international migration can increase willingness to pay when newcomers have remote incomes or higher purchasing power than locals. Lisbon and Porto are mentioned as destinations for remote-working white-collar and tech workers, while Belgrade is cited as experiencing rent increases linked to wealthy Russian arrivals after the start of the war in Ukraine. Across cities, limits on new construction constrain supply, and gentrification is presented as a common mechanism that can displace existing residents as neighbourhoods become more expensive.
Policy responses and the example of Vienna
The article emphasises that higher nominal wages can reduce the relative burden of housing costs, but presents government intervention as a central lever for durable solutions. Vienna is described as one of the best-performing cases, attributed to its extensive social housing stock, strict rent control, and tenant support systems. In contrast, Budapest is presented as the worst performer, associated with minimal tenant protections and a long-term policy emphasis on promoting home ownership rather than regulating rental markets or expanding affordable housing supports. Overall, the findings are used to underline the role of tenant protection and social housing programmes in preventing affordability pressures from excluding low- and middle-income residents from Europe’s cities.