Tirana surpasses Milan, among the 6 most expensive cities in Europe, according to purchasing power

2025-10-28 07:22:00, Ekonomi CNA

Tirana surpasses Milan, among the 6 most expensive cities in Europe, according

Tirana continues to rank among the six most expensive cities in Europe for the affordability of purchasing property, due to the significant increase in apartment prices and relatively low average incomes.

According to the latest Numbeo data, for the first half of 2025, the time needed to buy an apartment in Tirana has increased to 18 years, increasing by about 3 years compared to last year, when 15.3 years were needed.

In the world ranking, Tirana ranks 37th, with 18 years to buy an apartment. In Europe, it ranks sixth.

In Europe, only a few cities have a higher affordability index, such as London with 19.2 years, Lisbon in Portugal with 19.8 years and Split in Croatia with 18 years. Tirana is followed by Belgrade with 16.6 years and Paris with 15.3 years.

By 2025, Tirana will surpass 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. Meanwhile, in 2023-2024, Milan was positioned behind Tirana with 17 to 19 years to buy an apartment, while in Tirana it took 2 to 3 years less.

In the region, other cities such as Belgrade and Novi Sad require around 16.6 and 16.4 years to buy a property, while Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, has an affordability of 14.6 years. In Sarajevo it takes 15.4 years.

Numbeo calculates the affordability of buying a home by comparing housing prices to household income and the cost of a standard loan.

First, I use the Price-to-Income Ratio, which shows how many years of work it takes to buy a 90 m² apartment, taking the average prices in the city center and outside the city center and the net income of a family.

According to real estate market experts, this situation reflects the challenges of the property market in Albania, where high price increases in line with average income growth directly affect the time it takes to purchase a property.

Globally for the first half of 2025, the most expensive city to buy an apartment continues to be Xiamen in China, where affordability requires 40.1 years of savings.

For 2024, the most expensive city in Europe to buy a property is Lisbon with 19.5 years, followed by Paris and Split with 17.8 years and Milan with 16.3 years. Tirana was positioned behind Milan on this list.

In 2023, Paris was the most expensive city in Europe with 20.2 years for the affordability of buying an apartment, followed by Lisbon, Dubrovnik and Prague with 19.3 years and Milan with 19 years. Following Milan was Tirana with 17.5 years.

According to the recently published "Deloitte Property Index 2025" report, where our country is included for the first time in 25 European countries, it resulted that the average price of apartments in Albania has reached 1,620 euros per square meter, with an increase of 16.6% compared to the previous year, ranking second with the highest price increase after Poland (19.3%).

In Tirana, the average price has reached 2 thousand euros per square meter and in Vlora 2,400 euros per square meter, while in Durrës it is 1,350 euros per square meter.

While in the city center (areas such as the former Blloku and around Skanderbeg Square), average prices now reach 3,000–3,500 euros per square meter or more, while even the suburban neighborhoods exceed the limit of 1,000 euros per square meter./ Monitor