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The world’s 10 priciest cities for expats renting an apartment

Apartment prices in global hubs already strain expat budgets. EuroCost International ranks the 10 costliest cities for renters worldwide

Taking a job in another country used to mean the relocation package covered the rent. Now the hunt for a decent two- or three-bedroom flat in a global business hub can eat through that package before the first day of work. Demand for good-quality apartments in the neighborhoods where foreign staff cluster runs well ahead of the number of units reaching the market, and landlords in those districts know it. Employers feel the strain too, since housing accounts for a large share of every assignment budget. For the employee, the choice often narrows to a smaller flat, a longer commute, or a different city altogether.

Across most of the world, rental markets stayed tight through 2025. Construction costs kept climbing, and borrowing stayed expensive enough to make new projects hard to finance even after rates eased a little early in the year. Migration into big cities didn't slow down, and geopolitical tension pushed even more people toward a handful of destinations. Owners keep shifting apartments off long-term leases and onto Airbnb $ABNB for short tourist stays, thinning the stock left for anyone who needs a home for a year or more. North America was the exception, with rents there holding steady over the year. Everywhere else, tenants competed for a supply that never caught up with them.

EuroCost International surveyed two- and three-bedroom apartments in the neighborhoods foreign workers tend to choose, calculated the average rent tenants pay, then translated those figures into euros using December 2025 as the benchmark date. The panel only includes units in good or very good condition, matching what employers typically promise staff on assignment, and rents are recorded in the currency tenants actually pay, usually U.S. dollars or euros rather than local money. The firm describes its worldwide list as just one slice of a far broader rental landscape, and it anticipates another round of rent increases through 2026 as more residents find affordable housing out of reach. These are the cities where an expat lease costs the most.

New York holds first place in EuroCost International's 2026 worldwide ranking of expat rents, the same spot it held a year earlier. North America was the one region where rental markets stayed loose through 2025, and rents across the American cities in the survey barely moved over the 12 months. Most other major hubs saw rents climb over the same stretch, and none of them closed the gap. A city can finish first after a flat year only if its starting point sits far above everywhere else.

EuroCost prices a narrow slice of housing rather than the market at large. The ranking rests on two- and three-bedroom flats of good to very good quality, surveyed in the residential areas where foreign staff actually settle, with averages converted into euros and pinned to a December 2025 reference date. That's the apartment a relocated manager with a family signs for, not the cheapest unit available somewhere in the five boroughs. Rent in New York is quoted and paid in U.S. dollars, and converting those figures into euros is what lets the city be compared with London, Hong Kong, and the rest. Expat rents in these neighborhoods also behave differently from the wider local market, in both price level and direction, since employers are paying for a specific grade of housing in a specific set of districts.

Within the Americas, New York leads the regional list ahead of Miami and San Francisco, with Washington and Boston next. Seven North American cities sit in the global top 20 even after a quiet year for rents across the region. Companies weigh housing heavily when they post staff abroad, and the rent line on a New York assignment is the highest an employer will face anywhere. EuroCost expects rents worldwide to keep rising through 2026, and nothing in the 2025 American figures suggests New York will give up the position.

Only one city in the world costs an expat more than London. EuroCost puts the British capital second worldwide for 2026, behind New York and ahead of Hong Kong, in a survey of good-to-very-good-quality two- and three-bedroom flats in the residential areas where foreign staff tend to settle, priced in euros as of December 2025. London also heads the European table for another year, in front of Moscow, Geneva, and Zurich, and the regional order barely shifted between surveys.

The rest of Europe sits well back on the worldwide list. Amsterdam, fifth on the regional table, places 14th globally, and Paris, eighth in Europe, doesn't reach the worldwide top 20 at all. Moscow, Geneva, and Zurich are the only other European cities inside the global 10, and all three rank below London. EuroCost prices expat residential areas rather than the city as a whole, and the firm says its expat figures differ from the wider local market in both price level and direction of movement, so a relocation budget tracks a different set of prices from the one a Londoner moving across town would face.

Pressure on rental markets outside North America stayed heavy through 2025, with demand........

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