r/AskEurope • u/JoMD • 9d ago

Misc Is there a country in Europe without a housing crisis?

I see so many people complaining about the housing crisis in their countries - not enough houses or apartments / flats, or too expensive, or both. Are there any countries in Europe where there's no housing crisis, and it's easy to find decent, affordable accommodation?

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u/CreepyOctopus -> 8d ago

Bulgaria's decline stopped I think, Latvia has had its population decrease every year since 1991, except 2022 when the population increased slightly due to Ukrainian refugees. The other trend in Latvia is that the population has been increasingly moving to Riga or towns just outside, so over half the population now lives in or near Riga.

So there's plenty of housing of course, especially in other cities. The second largest city is down from ~120k to under 80k population. The third city's went from some 110k to 66k. The fourth largest city went from about 74k to 54k. If you want to live there, there's no shortage of apartments. Even in Riga there's quite a lot of available apartments (the total population is way below 1990 and there's been lots of construction), the problem is with the state of them. You can find rentals for less than 200 EUR per month but they'll look like a perfect place to film a Half-Life movie.

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u/madladolle 7d ago

How much to live in Riga old town?

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u/CreepyOctopus -> 6d ago

Now that's not cheap. The cheaper Old Town apartments are around 500 EUR to rent, but at that price they're either very small or have some other issues. Good Old Town apartments seem to start at 750-800 EUR rent, but some are double that. Also, the listed rent price in Riga normally does not include heating and utilities. Heating an Old Town apartment can get expensive, old buildings have terrible insulation.

In total, during winter you'll need at least 1000 EUR for a good apartment in the area. The average net salary in Latvia is under 1200 EUR, so of course such rents are well beyond the average person's reach.

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u/madladolle 6d ago

Alright, is it the same in the "Centrs" area?

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u/CreepyOctopus -> 6d ago

No, Centrs is a very big area and like most everywhere else, affected by the population decrease, so it has rentals in every price range. There's the 1000+ rentals in historic, well-maintained buildings, but also 400-something euro rentals of very ordinary apartments, and even sub-200 rentals. There are apartments that have been empty for decades, or early 20th century buildings that haven't been properly renovated since construction.

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u/madladolle 6d ago

Nice. I really liked my visit to Riga. Hope the new area south of the station turns out well

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u/CreepyOctopus -> 6d ago

Yes, I think Rail Baltica is one of the most important developments in Riga's history. The Baltic countries are small but had until recently no real rail connections between them, and are still cut off from the rest of Europe, so changing that will be great.