The hardest cities to rent in

What the ranking shows

Barcelona and Paris share first place. All ten of the hardest places are in Europe: tight supply, long waiting lists and landlords who can pick from dozens of applicants push its cities up.

Hard is not the same as expensive. The highest rent in the ranking is in New York, about €3,700 a month for a studio or one-bed, and it ranks joint no. 11. A costly city can still be open to a newcomer with savings and papers, while an affordable one can be brutal because so many people chase so few flats.

Scam risk is highest in Barcelona, Paris, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Berlin, among others. Fake listings and deposits paid before a viewing are the usual trap: read how to avoid rental scams before you pay anything.

At the other end, Helsinki, Auckland and Ottawa are the easiest of the cities we cover. That is not the same as easy: we only cover markets where finding a home takes work.

Difficulty is the meter that decides. It measures how hard it is for a newcomer to find a decent long-term home: how many people chase each flat, what landlords ask for (local payslips, a guarantor, a credit record, several months of deposit) and how much of the stock is short-let or tied to waiting lists. If you are moving from another country, renting from abroad covers the extra hurdles.

How the ranking works

Cities are ordered by difficulty first: how hard it is for a newcomer to find a decent long-term home. Where two cities score the same, competition decides, then cost, then scam risk. Cities equal on all four share a place, shown as “=4”.

Each meter runs from 1 to 5 and follows our published method, with the figures behind it on the city page. A city moves when its page is re-checked, so the ranking changes with them.