According to data from the National Registry for December 2020, there is a wide discrepancy over rent per square metre in different parts of Iceland, and across different regions of Reykjavík itself.
This information is based solely on properties registered with their relevant District Commissioners; many rental properties are not registered. Also excluded from the data were rental contracts older than 60 days at the time of registration, contracts where the number of rooms is not known, and social housing apartments, amongst other properties.
Based on this data, the cheapest region of the country to live in is Suðurnes, Iceland’s southwestern peninsula. There, a two-room apartment goes for on average 1,987 ISK per square metre. By contrast, for the same property in Reykjavík west of Kringlumýrarbraut, the going average rate is 3,277 ISK per square metre.
The most expensive kind of property per square metre, however, is a studio apartment. In this same region of Reykjavík, they average 4,832 ISK per square metre. As may be expected, the per-square-metre prices go down the larger the properties become.
As the Grapevine has reported in our latest news feature, renting in Reykjavík can be a challenging experience—especially for foreigners—and not solely because of the cost of rent. Immigrants often work low-wage jobs, and social housing has both a high threshold for qualification and a long waiting list, amongst numerous other factors.
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