What's your rent?

[Atticus]

Please tell also something about how you live.

The idea of this thread is to explore living costs around the world.

I live in a 25 m^2 single room apartment, about 1.5-2 km from the center of Helsinki, and pay 495 euros a month. The rent includes water but not the electricity nor gas. I'm actually pretty lucky, since it's very difficult to get apartment at the moment, and you'd easily have to pay 100 euros more a month.

EDIT: Here are the exchange rates of the major currencies, and here those of more exotic.

One square meter is about 11 square feet.

 

[Zelig]

Eh, last time I rented I paid $325/month with 3 roommates, in a 3 bedroom apartment, electricity extra, other utilities included. Dunno about size, I never bothered measuring.

Now I sleep on people's couches for free in exchange for cooking delicious meals.

 

[Bill3000]

Too Damn High.

 

[Disgustipated]

0

my house is bought and paid for.

I do pay property taxes, however. I'm not sure how much that is, but it's less than $1000 a year.

 

[Cashie]

Too Damn High.

Exactly.

 

[emzie]

$899 for a single bedroom, ~650 sq ft (~60 sq m), hydro (electricity), water, heat included. A/C is like 50 / month during the summer if you want it.

Parking is an extra 45. A storage unit is another 10. Total comes to $954 / month.

 

[Archbob]

$600 for single + $75 for parking per month.

However, cardboard boxes are free.

I do pay property taxes, however. I'm not sure how much that is, but it's less than $1000 a year.

Is this a tree house?

 

[warpus]

I pay about $1150 ($1148 US) for a 3 story house with 3 bedrooms, a livingroom, kitchen, 3 bathrooms, activity room, laundry room, 2 decks, and garage. It's pretty big but not huge.

I am cheating of course, cause I bought this place.. and yeah each month you gotta add on taxes, hydro, etc.

and technically it's not even a real house, there's an old lady living across a very thick concrete wall.. i never hear from her except for when she needs some lovin.. but yeah it's a pretty cool place, feels very house-like, 10 minute walk to amenities, 20 minute walk to alcoholic amenities, 20 minute drive to downtown, in a city with a metro area population of 450,000 or so, there's a garden with some pear trees in it, blueberry bushes, and as of spring there will be a shed, which is currently sitting in pieces in my garage.. and as of now you know way too much about me so stop reading goddamit

 

[Bei1052]

$600

I feel special.

 

[Nobody]

1200 a month nz dollars, but we pay it weekly and there is 3 of us, so i pay 100 a week.

 

[Arwon]

$210 Australian per week, for a master bedroom with ensuite in the inner North of Canberra (a leafy 20 minute walk from the city centre). My flatmates pay less.

Rent is very expensive in Australia, and Canberra may even be slightly worse than Sydney.

 

[Cutlass]

$425/month with heat and water for about 500 square feet 1 bedroom single occupancy.

 

[Zack]

Too Damn High.

I was going to post that!

 

[JerichoHill]

If you really want to explore rent around the world, just look at urban economics and any summary article by Glaesar (says the urban economist, cough)

My wife and I own 3 homes. So no rent for us

I charge my tenant (1 bdr basement apartment) 1000 all-inclusive w/utils, net,cable

 

[Atticus]

I added links to currency conversions to the OP.
Roughly CAD=USD=AUD,
£=1.5 USD and
€=1.2USD.

Too Damn High.

Should have seen that coming...

Rent is very expensive in Australia

Do you know any reason for that? Here high housing costs are often attributed to the extra cost that is required to build winter proof houses.

EDIT: Jericho, I think anecdotal evidence supplements statistics, and often the latter may be misleading, by for example focusing on flats of certain size or in certain area of town, or not focusing on certain areas of town. I find it more informative to hear a newyorker tell what's his rent and what does he think about it than reading stats about it.

 

[Eat_Up_Martha]

800$/month for a one bedroom, 600 square foot apartment. All utilities in, one parking space, the only thing extra we pay for is phones and internet. I split it with my girlfriend.

It's too long to walk to school but a reasonably bike ride. Not that I ever bike; it eats into my sleep-in time too much.

The housing prices in my city jumped something like 150% in 2007-2008 so our apartment is a little pricier than it may have once been. However, they were also planning on converting it into condos but didn't get it done in time. The city enacted a condo-conversion freeze because vacancy rates were too low. So out place is also entirely renovated with brand new appliances, including a terrifying washer/dryer that runs at about 3500rpm.

 

[Arwon]

I added links to currency conversions to the OP.
Roughly CAD=USD=AUD,
£=1.5 USD and
€=1.2USD.



Should have seen that coming...



Do you know any reason for that? Here high housing costs are often attributed to the extra cost that is required to build winter proof houses.

EDIT: Jericho, I think anecdotal evidence supplements statistics, and often the latter may be misleading, by for example focusing on flats of certain size or in certain area of town, or not focusing on certain areas of town. I find it more informative to hear a newyorker tell what's his rent and what does he think about it than reading stats about it.

Housing is very expensive. This carries through to rents, although house prices and rents are de-coupling which I understand indicates the presence of a bubble.

Off the top of my head:

-Limited housing stock due to planning policies (especially in Canberra)
-Low rental vancancy rates mean lack of supply
-Government policies which favour home ownership drive up demand and thus housing prices
-Large homes are the norm, and there are less apartments available than many other countries
-We're in the midst of a probable real estate bubble

 

[Patroklos]

My last rent was $1500 a month, split with a roomate, for a 1200sqft house with a great backyard and detached garage. It was a block from a large city part, a minor leage basball stadium, my alma mater and the football stadium. Gas stoves, hard wood floors, craftsman constuction with 13' ceilings.

It was awesome! Best of all was a giant front porch. miss it

Here it is:
http://mls.laneandsmythe.com/mls/mls-search-details.cfm?mlsnumber=1011353&mlsid=3&wsid=1

 

[Elephantium]

My house is about 88 m^2 (about 950 sq. ft) for the main level. Double that if you count the basement.

It also has a "one-and-a-half" garage (wide enough to fit two smaller cars but not wide enough to fit two typical American SUVs). Fortunately, my wife and I have smaller cars

Mortgage payment is about $1200/month (916 euros, according to Google).

 

[SKILORD]

460 +rent +power. Studio apartment, not very big.