On average across Russia’s 40 largest markets, 32% of a salary goes toward paying for a one-bedroom apartment, and 44% for a two-bedroom apartment, according to a Cian study.
For the calculations, analysts used average rental rates for one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments on the platform and salary data from Rosstat’s database of municipal indicators.
The most affordable one-bedroom rentals, apart from Novokuznetsk, Penza, Tolyatti, and Lipetsk, were also noted in Tyumen, where housing costs take up 24–26% of the average city salary. The company links this to low rental rates, and in Tyumen also to the population’s high incomes.
The least affordable one-bedroom apartments are in Sochi, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kaliningrad, and Astrakhan: there, rent takes up 40–54% of the average salary. In Astrakhan, this is explained by the lowest income levels among the cities analyzed, while in the other listed cities it is due to high rental prices.
Among two-bedroom apartments, analysts found the most affordable options in Novokuznetsk, Ulyanovsk, Lipetsk, Tyumen, and Orenburg, where rent takes up 29–35% of the average salary. The most expensive two-bedroom apartments relative to income are in Sochi, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kaliningrad, and Astrakhan, where the figure reaches 55–80%.
Cian also noted that estimated rental affordability improved over the year: a year ago, a one-bedroom apartment took up an average of 37% of salary, and a two-bedroom apartment 51%. Right now, one-bedroom apartment rental rates are on average 2% lower than in September 2025, and two-bedroom rates are 4% lower, which is linked to a larger supply, a slowing economy, and a high baseline level of rates.
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