As of today, there are only 179 apartments advertised for rent in Reykjavík, the lowest recorded number of available rentals.
Founder of Leiguland.is, Ásgeir Gunnarsson, has been tracking the rental market since 2019. When he started there were about 1000 apartments advertised for rent. The Tenants’ Association declared a state of emergency in March 2022 due to the lack of properties.
“The supply of rental apartments is very low right now and it doesn’t look like it’s going to improve any time soon,” Ásgeir says in Leiguland’s report, linked below. “Small rooms, which are usually between 10-20m², are the most expensive, and the price per square metre can easily go up to ISK 8,000-10,000. Standard apartments of 60-120m² are in the range of ISK 2,000-4,000 per square metre.”
Most of the apartments are located in the 101 and 105 postal codes because students and young people want to live in the city centre. Most of the advertised rentals are private rooms for rent and 45% of the advertisements are more than 80 days old.
“Flats that used to be long-term rentals have become short-term rentals on Airbnb today, charging between $80-$300 a night, which no normal person can compete with,” says Ásgeir. “There was a temporary situation with COVID and a big lack of tourists where there was a supply of Airbnb properties to the long-term rental market, which has now gone back [to short-term].”
You can keep track of the data here.
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