Lisbon 5th most expensive city in Europe for house rentals

Lisbon is the fifth most expensive city in Europe in which to rent a house according to the UK Economist’s ‘Carrie Bradshaw Index’, an indicator that cross references average rental data with the cost for a single person of renting a room or apartment in large European cities.

The use of the name of one of the leading actors of “Sex and the City,” Carrie Bradshaw, symbolises the growing difficulty many people face in achieving residential independence in European cities. It seems that Lisbon is not a good capital for single people to rent a house, according to The Economist index.

This index calculates how much a tenant would have to earn for the cost of rent not to exceed about 30% of their monthly salary, a limit frequently used to define a sustainable rental. Cities that clearly exceed this threshold are classified as inaccessible for an average worker to live alone.

According to the Carrie Bradshaw Index, some of Europe’s largest and most dynamic cities remain particularly difficult for those renting an apartment alone. London, for example, stands out as one of the most unbalanced markets, where an average renter can spend more than 40% of their monthly income on rent, well above the threshold considered healthy.

Cities like Dublin, Stockholm, and Prague have also seen rental prices rise faster than wages, placing them high in the inaccessibility ranking.

Source: Carrie Bradshaw Index; Image: Liam McKay for Unsplash