Munich has Germany’s highest student housing costs
Wednesday 30th September 2026 on 18:30 in
Bavaria
Munich is the most expensive city in Germany for student housing, with a model 20-square-metre room in a shared flat costing about 850 euros a month, BR reported, citing the 2026 Student Housing Report.
The report, produced by financial services provider MLP and the Institute of the German Economy, found wide differences between the 38 university locations it examined. The same model room costs about 220 euros in Chemnitz, the lowest figure in the study.
A model 30-square-metre student apartment in Munich costs about 880 euros a month, including utilities. Berlin, Frankfurt and Cologne follow, while Hamburg and Heidelberg come in at about 700 to 720 euros. Chemnitz is again the cheapest, at about 280 euros.
Housing is also expensive in other Bavarian university cities. In Würzburg, the model apartment costs 620 euros and a shared-flat room 548 euros. The respective prices in Regensburg are 584 and 512 euros, and in Nuremberg 556 and 509 euros.
Despite its high prices, Munich recorded the smallest annual rise in the report’s student housing price index, at 1.8 per cent. The index rose by 3.2 per cent in Würzburg, 3 per cent in Regensburg and 2.8 per cent in Nuremberg.
The report adjusts rents for factors such as a property’s age and condition. It examined price changes for small apartments, rooms in shared flats and furnished temporary housing.
Students who manage their own households spent an average of about 54 per cent of their available household income on housing in 2025, according to Germany’s Federal Statistical Office. That share is more than twice the average for the population as a whole. The monthly BAföG housing allowance of 380 euros covers the rent, including utilities, for a 30-square-metre apartment only in Chemnitz.
The report also examined construction activity for the first time. Although building remains above average in popular university cities, the report said it is not enough in many places to ease the housing shortage. Construction activity has slowed in about two-thirds of the locations studied, in some cases significantly, while the effects of a sharp fall in building permits since 2022 are becoming increasingly visible.