The key facts

  • The share of families who can afford to rent a two-room apartment reached 53.6% — an eight-year record; improvement was recorded in 81 regions.
  • The ranking leaders are KhMAO (77.5%) and YaNAO (77.4%); the last places went to Chechnya and Ingushetia.
  • The income a family of four needs to rent has grown to 131,000 rubles a month — more than 60% since 2019.

Record rental affordability amid rising required incomes

The Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs topped the ranking of Russian regions for rental housing affordability, RIA Novosti reports. According to the study, in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug 77.5% of families with two children can rent a two-room apartment without compromising essential expenses, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug — 77.4%. Third place goes to Magadan Oblast with 72.1%. The top ten also includes Tatarstan, Sakhalin Oblast, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Murmansk Oblast, Chukotka, Belgorod Oblast and Kaluga Oblast. As noted in the study, the point is not the lowest rental rates, but the ratio of residents' incomes, housing costs and mandatory expenses.

The nationwide picture

Across Russia as a whole, in January–September 2026 the share of families able to rent a two-room apartment reached 53.6% — the highest in the last eight years. Compared with 2025, the figure rose by 3.5 percentage points, and an improvement was recorded in 81 regions. At the same time, the average income a family of two working adults and two children needs to rent a two-room apartment has grown to 131,000 rubles a month: in January–September 2023 less than 100,000 was required, and in 2019 — just under 80,000. Thus, since 2019 the required income has increased by more than 60%. Experts attribute the improved affordability to wages growing faster than rental rates.

Regional contrasts and dynamics

The most difficult situation has developed in the North Caucasus: the last places in the ranking were taken by Chechnya and Ingushetia, and Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan were also among the regions with low affordability. In four regions of the country, fewer than a quarter of families can simultaneously pay rent and everyday expenses. Over the year, affordability grew the most in Magadan Oblast — by as much as 11.2 percentage points. Krasnodar Krai gained 9.9 points and rose 18 places in the ranking. In their calculations, the analysts took into account the incomes of two working adults with two children, regional subsistence minimums and rental costs for January–September 2026.

Market context

Economist and investment adviser listed with the Central Bank Yulia Kuznetsova earlier said in an interview with Gazeta.Ru that discounts on secondary-market apartments will shrink, most significantly after market mortgage rates fall below 16%. In her view, this will be especially noticeable in large cities and liquid neighborhoods, where good apartments disappear first. Earlier, Russians were also told which period is best for renting an apartment, and that before buying an apartment it is worth checking the extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate (EGRN): according to State Duma deputy Nikita Chaplin, the document makes it possible to learn the property's characteristics, information on registered rights and the presence of encumbrances, and it can be obtained through Gosuslugi, Rosreestr or an MFC.

Why it matters

The ranking shows that rental affordability for families with children varies markedly across regions: the leaders are okrugs with high incomes, while the North Caucasus lags behind, where fewer than a quarter of families can combine rent and everyday expenses. For renters, the practical takeaway is that the required budget for a family of four is now about 131,000 rubles a month, and when planning expenses it is worth focusing on the ratio of income, rental rate and subsistence minimum in one's own region, rather than national averages.