The rise in the cost of living across Europe

Due to the recent economic crisis in Europe, rents across the continent have increased by an average of …

The rise in the cost of living across Europe: This is how much more you are paying for rent in your nation.

Those who have been renting a room or an apartment in Europe for the past 10 years may have noticed that their monthly fees have gone up recently. Those who are new to renting may not know that things used to be a lot easier on their finances before.

In the last ten years, rental prices in Europe have gone up by a huge 17.6%. Even though inflation is going up and there is an energy crisis that could make it hard for many people to pay their bills this winter, the continent grew 1.7% in the last three months compared to the same time in 2021.

Eurostat's most recent data shows that rents have been steadily going up since 2010, while the housing market had some ups and downs before it started going up in a spiral in 2015.

Rents have gone up almost everywhere in Europe, but they have gone up the most in Estonia.

The Baltic state's rental prices went up by 214% because more people moved to the country's biggest cities, like Tallinn, while the number of available apartments stayed the same.

Recently, tens of thousands of Ukrainians who were fleeing the Russian invasion of their country and needed a place to live came to Europe. This made the situation even worse.

The next country in the race to the top is Lithuania, which is also in the Baltic region. Rents there are now 139% higher than they were in 2010.

Renting a place in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, has become so difficult that the government is thinking about putting a limit on rent prices.

According to the Baltic News Network, these rent increases are hurting students the most. A cheap apartment in Vilnius with a bathroom and a kitchen now costs €400, but it will only cost €100 or less in 2021.

Even though Ireland has some of the lowest inflation rates in the EU, rents have gone up by 82% in the last 10 years. This is the third-highest increase of any country in the EU.

The reason for this is the same as in Estonia and Lithuania: there aren't enough places to rent.

Almost every country in Europe saw rent prices go up over the past 10 years, but Greece and Cyprus were the only two that didn't.

Contrary to what most people would expect, rental prices actually went down in these two countries. But compared to the huge increases seen in Estonia, Lithuania, and Ireland, these drops are almost unimportant.

From July 2010 to July 2022, the average rent in Greece went down by 24%. During the same time period, rents went down by 0.2% in Cyprus.

On the other hand, buying a house might seem like a better way to avoid wasting money, but with the way the housing market is right now, this is not a simple choice either.

Eurostat says that since 2010, the prices of homes in the European Union as a whole have gone up by 48%.

In Estonia, house prices have also gone up by three digits. They are now 196% more expensive than they were in 2010.

The cost of buying a home went up by 168% in Hungary, 135% in Luxembourg, 131% in Latvia, 130% in Lithuania and the Czech Republic, and 121% in Austria.

Eurostat says that prices have only gone down in Greece, Italy, and Cyprus, where houses now cost 23, 8, and 6% less than they did more than 10 years ago.