How many years would it take Ukrainians to save up for an apartment?
On average, it takes Ukrainians 5–7 years to save up for a one-bedroom apartment if they set aside their entire monthly salary. This is according to a study by OLX Real Estate and OLX Jobs. The time required to save can vary significantly across different regions, ranging from 2 to 9 years depending on income levels and housing costs.
The most affordable places to buy a one-bedroom apartment are cities located near the front lines—real estate prices there are the lowest in Ukraine.
According to the analysis, it would take about 2 years to save up in Zaporizhzhia. This is the lowest figure, with a median price of 661,000 UAH. It would take 3 years to save up in Kherson (636,000 UAH) and Mykolaiv (856,000 UAH), and 4 years in Kharkiv (1.1 million UAH) and Sumy (1 million UAH).
In a number of cities, median prices are more moderate. It takes at least five years to save an entire monthly salary to purchase an apartment in Dnipro (1.4 million UAH), Kropyvnytskyi (1.3 million UAH), Chernihiv (1.5 million UAH), and Khmelnytskyi (1.8 million UAH), according to the study.
As analysts note, those wishing to purchase a one-bedroom apartment in Ivano-Frankivsk (2.2 million UAH), Cherkasy (2 million UAH), Poltava (1.7 million UAH), and Odesa (2.2 million UAH) will need to save for six years. In some regional centers, it takes approximately 7 years to save the median purchase price, specifically:
- Odesa (2.1 million UAH),
- Lutsk (2.4 million UAH),
- Ternopil (2.4 million UAH),
- Rivne (2.5 million UAH),
- Zhytomyr (2.1 million UAH),
- Vinnytsia (2.4 million UAH).
According to the analysis, the four cities where buying a one-bedroom apartment is least affordable include Chernivtsi (2.5 million UAH) and Lviv (3.2 million UAH)—it would take at least 8 years to save up enough money there.
The most expensive cities are Kyiv (3.4 million UAH) and Uzhhorod (3.3 million UAH): in these cities, it takes about 9 years to save enough money.
As a reminder, real estate prices in Belarus are rising despite falling demand, according to the State Real Estate Agency.
