Expensive living: Where students in Europe pay the most for a room
In addition to questions about health insurance and possible visa restrictions, foreign students have a lot to clarify and plan before starting their studies. This also includes finding accommodation in a foreign city. At the start of the 2024/25 winter semester, we at BSBI analysed the range of private rooms on offer in 44 European student cities and compiled a ranking of average prices. We analysed the accommodation marked as private rooms on the Erasmus Play website. This offer is primarily aimed at foreign students who are looking for temporary, furnished accommodation.
Three German cities among the five most expensive locations
Living in Germany is a considerable cost factor for foreign students. Of the eight German cities represented in the ranking, five are in the top ten places in the table. Three even occupy places in the top five most expensive locations. Students have to dig deepest into their pockets for a private room in Hamburg. In the Hanseatic city, the average price is €1,650 with 518 rooms on offer on the platform analysed. Düsseldorf comes in second place. There are 406 rooms available here, and students pay an average of €1,550 for one of them. In third place in the ranking is Manchester. In the industrial city in the north-west of England, students have to pay an average of €1,473 for one of the 152 private rooms. The third German city in the group is Cologne: with an average price of €1,450 per month (for 317 rooms in total), the city on the Rhine is in fourth place in the ranking.
The cheapest place to live is Dortmund
If you’re on a budget, it’s worth considering studying in Spain. One of the cheapest places to live for students is Seville, which offers a wide range of accommodation with 1,133 rooms at an average price of €390. There is also a large number of private rooms in Valencia, Spain. With 2,013 rooms costing an average of €360, the city is the second cheapest in the ranking. The cheapest place for students to live is Dortmund, where you pay an average of €350 for a private room. However, with only 173 offers, the North Rhine-Westphalian city requires speed in the search for accommodation.
Capital cities offer the largest selection of private rooms
The range of private rooms for students is particularly large in the European capitals. The front-runner here is Madrid, where there are 6,148 rooms at an average price of €540. In second place is the German capital Berlin. In the city on the River Spree, students can choose from 4,472 private rooms at an average price of €1,000. With 4,428 offers, the city of fashion, Paris, is only just behind Berlin in third place. Students there pay an average of €970 for a room.
About the study
The study analysed the range of accommodation marked as private rooms on the Erasmus Play website. Only cities with at least 100 listings for private rooms in August 2024 were included in the ranking. The median value was chosen to avoid the influence of large outliers.