Study reveals 30.2% discrepancy between rent in Lisbon and tenants’ expectations

Overall, the discrepancy rate in Europe decreased compared to last year, with reductions in 14 of the 23 cities, reflecting the European slowdown in income growth.

HousingAnywhere, Europe’s largest medium-term rental platform, has launched the first Rent Gap Monitor, exposing the gap between market rent prices and tenants’ expectations when looking for accommodation. The report, which analyzes income disparities in 23 European cities, shows that Lisbon and Porto have discrepancies of 30.2% and 12.1%, respectively. While the median rental price for an apartment in Lisbon is €1,693, tenants expected to find an apartment for €1,300, which led to a difference in absolute numbers of €393. In Porto, the median rent is currently €1,184, but tenants expected to find suitable accommodation for €1,056, which exposes a difference of €128.

Rising rents in Porto increase the price difference

Porto recorded the biggest increase compared to last year, despite still recording one of the lowest discrepancy rates in Europe, at just 12.1% – going from a difference of €19 to €128. This increase follows one of the largest annual increases in apartment prices (16.9%), in the fourth quarter of 2023, also recorded in Porto.

On the other hand, the discrepancy between the rental price and that expected in Lisbon decreased substantially, from €667 to €393, influenced by an annual decrease of 10.9% in the price of apartment rents.

HousingAnywhere’s Rent Gap Monitor compares the median price of apartments (mostly furnished) listed on the medium-term rental platform, with the median maximum price set by users in the search filter when looking for an apartment to rent. The report analyzed more than 2.9 million searches across 23 European cities in the final quarters of 2023 and 2022.

Discrepancies across borders

Considering the 23 cities analyzed, Rotterdam has the smallest difference in absolute terms (47 euros), while Rome has the largest difference (521 euros). In relative terms, Cologne is the city with the biggest difference (with a difference of 47.1%), while Rotterdam again occupies the lowest position (a difference of 3.1%).

For Djordy Seelmann, CEO of HousingAnywhere, “The disparity between market prices and renter expectations is significant in some European cities, reflecting the challenges that renters face in finding affordable accommodation in pressured rental markets. However , in 14 of the 23 cities, we saw a narrowing of this difference compared to last year. Coupled with the fact that rent prices on our platform recorded the lowest annual increase at the end of 2023 in the last two years, this offers some insight of hope in the midst of the housing crisis”.