Montenegro ranked ninth among 34 European countries in 2024 for the share of residents living in households where housing costs exceeded 40% of disposable income, with the figure at 8.7%. That was one percentage point above the European Union average of 7.7%, a benchmark that is not included in the country ranking.
The ranking measures the share of people affected, not the number of households or the average proportion of income spent on housing. A higher percentage indicates a greater burden, and countries with the same value share a position.
Most country figures are for 2025, while Montenegro’s data, like those for Switzerland and North Macedonia, cover 2024. Countries with higher shares than Montenegro were Greece, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Sweden, Turkey and Estonia.
Greece recorded 26.4%, the highest share, while Cyprus had the lowest, at 2.4%. Among other countries in the region, the figures were 7.9% for Serbia, 5.6% for North Macedonia, 3.5% for Slovenia, 3.2% for Croatia and 2.6% for Albania.
How the housing burden is measured
The threshold is crossed when housing costs exceed two-fifths of a household’s disposable income. For a household with monthly disposable income of 1,000 euros, the measure counts it as overburdened when eligible housing costs are more than 400 euros.
Housing costs include rent or mortgage interest, water, electricity, gas and heating, as well as insurance, maintenance, repairs and related taxes. Repayment of mortgage principal is excluded. Disposable income is household income after taxes and social contributions, including social benefits such as pensions; housing benefits are deducted from both housing costs and income in the calculation.
The 8.7% figure does not mean residents spend that share of their income on housing on average. It is the proportion of residents living in households above the 40% threshold, and the calculation is based on people rather than households.
Among residents at risk of poverty, Montenegro’s housing-cost overburden rate was 30.3% in 2024, meaning nearly one in three people in that group lived in a household over the threshold. The poverty-risk measure covers people whose equivalised disposable income after social transfers is below 60% of their country’s national median. Because the threshold is tied to each country’s income distribution, it does not represent the same monetary amount across Europe.
