High apartment prices and low incomes of Albanians continue to rank Tirana among the five most expensive cities in Europe for the affordability of buying a property. According to Numbeo data, if it took 15.3 years to buy an apartment in Tirana last year, by the first half of 2025, the apartment affordability index has increased by about 3 years.
In Tirana, it takes 18 years to buy an apartment, according to Numbeo data published for the first half of 2025. In the world ranking, Tirana is ranked 37th, with 18 years to buy an apartment. Among the European cities with the highest affordability index for buying a property is the capital of Portugal, Lisbon, with 19.8 years, London with 19.2 years, Split and Tirana with 18 years, followed by Belgrade with 16.6 years and Paris with 15.3 years.
In 2025, Tirana surpasses Milan, one of the most expensive cities in Europe, in terms of affordability of buying a property. In Milan, it takes 16 years to buy an apartment. In 2023-2024, Milan ranked behind Tirana with 17 to 19 years to buy an apartment, while in Tirana it took 2 to 3 years less. In the world ranking for the first 6 months of 2025, the most expensive city in the world to buy an apartment continues to be Xiamen in China, with 40.1 years.
In 2024, the most expensive city in Europe is Lisbon with 19.5 years, followed by Paris and Split with 17.8 years. Milan comes next with 16.3 years. Tirana, as in 2023, continued to rank behind Milan for the most expensive apartments in Europe. In 2023, the most expensive city in Europe was Paris with 20.2 years, followed by Lisbon with 19.6 years, Dubrovnik and Prague with 19.3 years, Milan with 19 years and Tirana with 17.5 years.
A similar indicator for the affordability of buying an apartment in Tirana has been calculated by “Monitor” based on the formula presented in the “Deloitte” report that measures how many real gross annual salaries are needed to buy a new apartment, with a standard size of 70 square meters. By adapting this data to Tirana, it is calculated that to buy a 70 square meter apartment, 19 real gross annual salaries are needed.
According to data collected by Deloitte’s national offices, the least affordable city in the survey is Amsterdam, where residents need 15.4 average gross annual salaries to buy a 70 m² apartment – a slight increase of 0.3% compared to a year ago. It is followed by Athens, with 15.3 annual salaries, while in third place is Prague, where 15 annual salaries are needed for a similar apartment.
At the next level of affordability (14.0–14.9 annual salaries) are cities such as Košice (14.2) and Brno (14.0). In the next group, with 12.0–13.9 annual salaries, are Banská Bystrica (12.8) and Bratislava (12.3). Cities where affordability is calculated between 10.0 and 11.9 annual salaries include Ljubljana (11.7), Thessaloniki (11.4), Budapest (11.4), Ostrava (10.9), Inner London (10.8) and Rotterdam (10.1).
At the more affordable end of the spectrum, residents of Odense in Denmark and Turin in Italy need just 4.9 average gross annual salaries to buy a new apartment – making these cities the most affordable in comparison. Other cities with relatively high affordability include Manchester (5.3), Aarhus (5.8) and Katowice (7.1).
According to the report, it is important to note that housing affordability is shaped not only by real estate prices, but also by local wage levels. In some cases, even cities with high prices can offer better affordability thanks to rising average incomes. For this reason, the balance between income growth and housing cost inflation remains a crucial factor determining access to housing across Europe. /Taken from Monitor.al
