Renting a one-room apartment in Ukraine can consume over 80% of a worker's monthly income. This is the conclusion reached by analysts at OLX Work and OLX Real Estate, whose study was published by RBC-Ukraine. Experts compared the median rental cost of housing with the median salaries of representatives from dozens of professions, finding that chefs, cashiers, car washers, and bakers bear the heaviest financial burden, whereas high-paying skilled trades spend a fraction of that income on housing.

Basic Parameters of the Study

The calculations are based on data from September 2026. The median rental cost of a one-room apartment in Ukraine at that time was 12,500 hryvnias per month. OLX analysts compared this exact amount with median salaries across each studied profession to determine what share of income workers must allocate to housing. OLX emphasizes that all calculations are approximate: actual expenses for a specific individual depend on the city, neighborhood, apartment condition, and actual rather than median income.

Who Finds Renting Cheapest

Specialists with high earnings spend the smallest portion of their income on housing. A plasterer with a median salary of 85,000 hryvnias spends about 15% of their income on renting a one-room apartment. Façade workers, technologists, and dentists, whose median salary is around 70,000 hryvnias, allocate approximately 18% to housing. Masons, tilers, and long-haul truck drivers earning around 65,000 hryvnias spend about 19% on rent. General industrial workers, foremen, auto painters, electricians, and plumbers with a median salary of around 50,000 hryvnias set aside about a quarter of their salary for housing. Welders and installers earning 45,000–48,000 hryvnias lose 26% to 28% of their income to rent.

Middle Segment: From a Third to Half of Earnings

For a significant portion of workers, monthly rent accounts for one-third to half of their earnings. Teachers with a median salary of 32,000 hryvnias spend about 39% of their income on rent. Sales assistants and waiters earning 30,000 hryvnias allocate roughly 42% to housing. Sales managers, sales representatives, couriers, tutors, pharmacists, and tire fitters with a median salary of about 40,000 hryvnias spend about 31% of their income on an apartment. Salespeople with lower median salaries spend 52% of their earnings on rent, while loaders and locksmiths spend 54%.

Maximum Burden: Chef, Cashier, Baker

The most difficult situation is faced by workers with median salaries below 20,000 hryvnias. Baristas earning 19,000 hryvnias spend about 66% of their income on rent. Bakers and car washers earning 16,800 hryvnias allocate 74% and 75% respectively to housing. Cashiers with a median salary of 15,700 hryvnias spend about 79% of their earnings on an apartment. The leaders in terms of rental expense share are chefs: with a median salary of 15,400 hryvnias, monthly rent for a one-room apartment accounts for about 81% of their income. Thus, after paying for housing, a representative of this profession is left with less than a fifth of their salary for all other needs.

Regional Context: Uzhhorod vs. Kyiv

Previously, RBC-Ukraine reported that Uzhhorod became the most expensive city for renting one-room housing: the median rate there reached 36,000 hryvnias per month, which is 82% higher than the previous year. In Kyiv, by contrast, autumn rental prices are generally decreasing. Prices for three-room apartments dropped the most—by 9% over the year to 38,300 hryvnias. One-room housing in the capital costs an average of 17,000 hryvnias, and two-room housing costs 25,000 hryvnias. These regional differences mean that for a worker earning 15,000–20,000 hryvnias, renting in Uzhhorod becomes practically unaffordable, whereas in Kyiv, although still significant, it hits the budget somewhat less harshly.