How much of your pay does rent take?
Rent, net pay, one ratio. Under 30% is the rule of thumb lenders and landlords use; over 40% is what Eurostat calls housing cost overburden. Tap a city to see what the average tenant there is up against.
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- Checked September 2026
One-bedroom in the centre against the average net salary, Numbeo, September 2026, in the city's own currency. Crowd data, a guide rather than a contract.
Over 40%. Eurostat calls this housing cost overburden.
To get under 30% you would need about €3,167 net, or rent of €660.
Rule of thumb: under 30% of net pay. Eurostat's overburden line: 40% of disposable income on housing. The share is a ratio, so any currency works.
How it is worked out
Rent share calculator: how the ratio is worked out
The ratio is currency-free, so it works for a Prague salary in koruna or a Dublin one in euros. It is also the honest way to compare two job offers in two cities: the salary that looks bigger is often the one that leaves less after rent. And if your share is over 40%, the arithmetic that moves it is brutal but short. Rent is the only line in a budget where one decision changes the number by hundreds a month; every other cut is worth tens. That is why this is the first ratio to check and the last one to ignore.
Common questions
- Does the rent share calculator use gross or net pay?
- Net. Rent is paid from what lands in your account, and the 30% and 40% lines are both defined against take-home income. Using gross flatters the ratio by exactly the size of your tax bill.
- What counts as rent?
- What your landlord takes, plus anything you cannot avoid by living differently in the same flat: service charge, building fees, and heating where it is billed with the rent. Electricity and internet are yours to change, so leaving them out keeps this a measure of your housing rather than your habits.
- Is the 30% rule still realistic?
- It comes from American housing policy in 1969 and it survives because it is a round number, not because it is a law of nature. In Vienna or Prague it is reachable on an ordinary salary; in Dublin, Amsterdam or Lisbon the average tenant is nowhere near it. Treat it as the line you are measured against, not a line you have failed.
- Where do the city figures come from?
- Numbeo, September 2026: average one-bedroom rent in the city centre against the average net salary reported there. It is crowd-sourced data with a few hundred entries per city, good for orientation, not for a contract.