On 1 October 2026 Eurostat published the comparison of the second quarter of 2026 with the 2025 annual average for rents in the EU. Romania ranks first: plus 41.2%. Croatia follows at plus 22.1% and Slovenia at plus 10.2%. The smallest rises are in Estonia and Finland, plus 0.1% each. That is not the 43% figure recycled by aggregators, and it is not the usual quarter-on-quarter comparison.

The same note says that, in the Union, rents rose 3.0% in the second quarter against the second quarter of 2025 and 2.6% against the 2025 annual average. House prices, a different index, were up 4.7% year on year in the EU in Q2 and 4.1% against the 2025 average. The two series should not be mixed: one measures rent paid, the other the transaction price of dwellings.

The relevant index is the HICP for actual rentals of the main residence. It covers market and social rents, new and existing contracts. It is not a listings catalogue, not a monthly average in euros, and it does not include separately billed utilities, the deposit or an agency fee.

Plus 41.2% therefore means that Romania's index in Q2 2026 stood 41.2% above the average of the 2025 index. It does not mean every tenant now pays 41% more than last October, nor that every new advert jumped by the same percentage.

News.ro relayed the European release without adding another national measure. This article stays with the primary source. It is not advice on what to ask or offer when a contract is renewed.

Anyone who wants to understand a household budget should look at their own contract, deposit and fee. Anyone who wants to understand Romania's place in the EU should look at 41.2% versus the 2025 average, not at a headline rounded up.

Image: Ana Zecheru, apartment blocks in Tineretului, Bucharest, CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons; archive housing, not a contract from the second quarter of 2026.

Sources consulted: House prices and rents continued to rise in Q2 2026 - Eurostat; Eurostat: Romania, the largest rent rise in the EU in Q2 2026 - News.ro.