The median monthly rent for a furnished room in Athens stands at €415, down 1.2% year-on-year. Studios cost €750, 6.3% less than in the third quarter of 2025. Despite the decline in prices, competition for student housing remains high across Europe.
The student housing market in European cities is showing signs of stabilisation, as furnished room prices increased only marginally, while studio rents declined. In Athens, the picture is even more favourable in terms of asking rents, with decreases in both rooms and studios, according to the latest edition of HousingAnywhere’s International Rent Index by City.
The platform’s 33rd quarterly report, published on October 14, 2026, examines rental prices for furnished rooms and studios across 25 European cities in 11 countries, using data from 44,862 listings. The data covers properties advertised on the platform and reflects this specific market segment, rather than the entire rental housing market in each city.
Athens: Rooms at €415 and studios at €750
In the Greek capital, the median rent for a furnished room stood at €415 per month in the third quarter of 2026, recording a 1.2% decrease year-on-year. Athens is therefore among the most affordable cities in the sample for those looking for a room, with only Budapest offering a lower price, at €380.
The decline is even greater for studios. The median monthly rent in Athens reached €750, down 6.3% compared with the third quarter of 2025. This is one of the largest decreases among the cities examined in the report, with bigger declines recorded only in Milan (-8.3%) and Bologna (-7.1%).
In terms of prices, studios in Athens are among the most affordable in the sample, with similar prices in Budapest and lower prices only in Turin, where the median rent stands at €723.
This picture suggests that, at least in the furnished rental market tracked by HousingAnywhere, Athens is experiencing less pressure on prices compared with several other European student cities. However, the decline in asking rents alone is not enough to demonstrate that the broader issue of affordable student housing in Greece has been resolved.
Europe: Slight increase in room rents, decline in studios
Across the European sample, the median monthly rent for a furnished room reached €635 in the third quarter of 2026, up just 1% from €629 a year earlier. At the same time, it remained 1.6% below the level recorded in the third quarter of 2024, when it stood at €645.
By contrast, the median rent for furnished studios fell to €1,100, marking a 3.7% decrease year-on-year. This figure is also 4.4% lower than in the third quarter of 2024, when it stood at €1,150.
However, these overall figures conceal significant differences between cities. For rooms, the largest annual increases were recorded in Düsseldorf (+12.9%), Stuttgart (+10.2%) and Hamburg (+9.7%). Conversely, decreases were recorded in Cologne (-5.6%), Amsterdam (-4.8%), Milan (-4.4%), Brussels (-4.4%) and Bologna (-4.3%).
For studios, fluctuations were more pronounced. Rents increased by 29% in Hamburg and 28.4% in Rotterdam, while Prague recorded a 13.8% rise. According to HousingAnywhere, these large changes are also linked to the lower availability of studios, which makes their prices more vulnerable to sharp fluctuations.
Less pressure on demand, but competition remains
The decline in prices is accompanied by a relative easing of competition for housing, although this does not mean that finding accommodation has become easy.
In August 2026, there were an average of 14.5 interested students per available room on the platform, compared with 16.5 in August 2025, representing a 12% decrease. Despite the decline, the figure remained more than double that recorded in May, when there were 6.6 interested students per room, before the peak of the summer student housing search season.
For studios, the corresponding figure stood at 27.1 interested students per available property, down 5% year-on-year but up 59% compared with May.
These indicators reflect user activity on HousingAnywhere and do not measure overall demand in each national market. Nevertheless, they illustrate the difficulties students may face when searching for specific types of furnished accommodation, particularly studios.
Europe’s student housing shortage
The long-term challenge remains the gap between the growth of the student population and the development of new housing. According to research by JLL, cited in the HousingAnywhere report, Europe’s student population is expected to increase by 2.2 million, reaching 21 million by the 2029–2030 academic year.
At the same time, completions of new purpose-built student accommodation are estimated to fall 79% short of the increase in the student population over the next five years. This forecast suggests that the supply of purpose-built student housing may not be sufficient to meet additional needs.
For Athens and Greece, HousingAnywhere’s data provides a positive indication regarding price trends for the furnished rooms and studios listed on the platform. However, it does not prove that student housing has become more affordable overall, as the data does not cover the entire market, housing availability in each area or students’ purchasing power. It is worth emphasising once again that the study concerns furnished properties advertised on HousingAnywhere. Specifically, 44,862 listings across 25 European cities in 11 countries.
