Q2 2026 HousingAnywhere International Rent Index by City

HousingAnywhere's Q2 2026 International Rent Index by City tracks 25 European cities and finds that rooms remain the more affordable, more accessible option as students race to secure housing ahead of the September rush

Amsterdam, 9 July 2026 - As students across Europe search for accommodation ahead of the new academic year, HousingAnywhere's latest International Rent Index shows that renting a room continues to be the smarter budget choice. Average room rents fell 4.6% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, while competition for rooms remains far lower than for studios, meaning students who opt to share get both better prices than last year, and better odds of securing a home.

The 32nd edition of the quarterly report is based on 35,399 furnished rooms and studios listed and searched on the platform across 25 cities in 11 European countries between Q2 2025 and Q2 2026.

For students weighing where to live, the trade-off between cost and competition increasingly favours a room. Rooms are not only cheaper on average than a year ago, they are also considerably easier to secure: each listing attracts 6.6 interested students, up only 3% year-on-year, compared with 17.1 for a studio.

Competition for studios did cool over the past year, dropping 28% year-on-year from 23.8 interested students per listing to 17.1. Even so, a studio listing still draws almost three times as much interest as a room, underlining that shared housing remains the more realistic option for students searching in the busiest weeks of the year.

Students set on living independently should expect to budget for a noticeably higher rent than those sharing a home. The good news is that this cost has not grown further: average studio rents across Europe were flat year-on-year in Q2 2026, offering some stability to students prioritising privacy over price.

The average 4.6% drop in room rents masks considerable variation between cities. Rents fell more steeply than the European average in Brussels (-7.7%), Bologna (-4.6%) and Paris (-4.0%), giving students in these cities extra room on their budgets.

Elsewhere, the picture reversed: room rents rose in Amsterdam (+10.6%), Prague (+8.9%) and Barcelona (+8.3%), putting these among the cities where students may want to start their search earlier, and consider a wider range of neighborhoods beyond the city center.

A similar divide plays out in the studio segment. Studio rents dropped in Rome (-17.9%), Athens (-9.4%) and Florence (-6.3%), while they climbed in Turin (+15.3%), Barcelona (+15.0%) and Valencia (+11.1%).

Because studios make up a smaller share of the market than rooms, prices in this segment can swing more sharply.

Barcelona and Prague stand out as cities where both rooms and studios grew more expensive over the past year, making early planning especially valuable there.

Search activity on the HousingAnywhere platform points to a peak season that is arriving fast: the amount of students actively looking for housing increased by 15% in May compared to the previous month, and kept growing by 19% in June. Ahead of the September rush, students who start their search now are better placed to compare options and secure a home before availability tightens further.

Antonio Intini, CEO of HousingAnywhere: “Now is the moment for students to lock in a home for the new semester, and the data is clear: shared living is the smarter move. Room rents are down 4.6% year-on-year, and competition is far lower than for studios, so students who choose a room get better prices and better odds. It's not just about cost, either, sharing a home helps students build a community from day one in a new city. What students want most is certainty over what they'll spend, which is why HousingAnywhere offers bills-included and no-deposit listings, so they know their full budget from day one.”

HousingAnywhere's is built to help students rent a home online safely, from wherever they are located. The platform offers ready-to-live-in, furnished homes, including bills-included and no-deposit options, and price filters that let students see exactly what they'll pay from day one.

About the Q2 2026 HousingAnywhere International Rent Index by City

For this 32nd quarterly edition of the HousingAnywhere International Rent Index by City, HousingAnywhere analyzed 35,399 properties that were listed and received interest from potential tenants on the platform in Q2 2026 or Q2 2025. The report analyzed private rooms and studios located across 25 European cities, in 11 countries. Approximately 99% of the properties were fully furnished and 60% included bills in their rent, with all listings mainly geared towards servicing students and young professionals relocating within and across borders.

The available properties in HousingAnywhere are listed by private owners and real estate agents listing their available spaces directly. The platform does not include properties offered by housing corporations or other types of non-profit organizations, which generally have lower rental prices.

Rent prices and square meter prices are calculated based on the data provided by property providers when listing on HousingAnywhere. The absolute rent price of a city is calculated by a median. The price per square meter is calculated by dividing the median absolute price of a property type by the median size.

The year-on-year variation in rent prices at a European level is calculated as the difference between the median rent price across all cities this year and last year.

Aiming to provide a robust dataset, cities with less than 40 units in a quarter in one of the property types analyzed were excluded from the report. For this reason, the cities of Amsterdam and Stuttgart were excluded from the studio section of the report due to low inventory.

These are the 25 cities included in this edition of the report: Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Bologna, Brussels, Budapest, Düsseldorf, Florence, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Köln, Lisbon, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris, Porto, Prague, Rome, Rotterdam, Stuttgart, Turin, Valencia, Vienna.

The report is available in English, Dutch, German, Italian, and Spanish.

Check the Rent Index FAQ page for more information on the report’s methodology.

About HousingAnywhere's calculation of competition per property type

(Number of unique users who opened at least one listing page, divided by number of available properties)

HousingAnywhere analyzed the number of unique users who opened at least one listing page in May across its core European cities — going beyond passive scrolling to actively view a property, signaling real intent to secure a home — and divided this by the number of available properties in the same city.

About HousingAnywhere

HousingAnywhere is Europe's leading rental platform for students. The marketplace offers a safe, online booking experience by connecting students from around the world with verified property providers across 125 European cities. Advertisers (from landlords to property managers) list their rooms, apartments and studios and collect their rent safely, while tenants stay protected online. HousingAnywhere users are usually 18–35 year-old students seeking mid-term rentals (6–12 months) to unlock the potential of the next chapter in their lives.

The HousingAnywhere Group represents three student-focused brands: HousingAnywhere (Europe), Kamernet (the Netherlands) and Studapart (France). In 2024, the HousingAnywhere and Studapart marketplaces collectively generated 60,000 bookings, and Kamernet had 80,000 paying subscribers. Headquartered in Rotterdam, the company employs 250 professionals.

Press contact

For more information, please contact press@housinganywhere.com. For more reports, go to the press page.