Median rent: what the number does and does not tell you

The middle of a sample

Sort comparable monthly rents from lowest to highest. With an odd number of observations, the middle value is the unweighted sample median; with an even number, average the two middle values. Official statistics may instead use survey weights. Keep the provider’s method when quoting a published median.

Do not average neighbourhood medians to invent a city median. Without the underlying observations and their weights, that operation does not reconstruct the city’s distribution.

Comparable means more than the same city

Separate apartments from rooms, monthly contracts from holiday stays, and asking rents from existing-contract rents. Record charges, furnishing and room definitions. A median from long-standing tenancies is useful context, but it is not a promise that a newcomer can rent at that price.

Ask for the range and the date

A useful rental summary includes the period, sample size and geographic boundary. When published, the lower and upper quartiles describe the middle half of the rental distribution. They are not a statistical confidence interval or a guaranteed range for your next apartment.

The OLL catalogue distinguishes agglomerations from central cities. Lifovra must preserve that distinction rather than silently presenting a wider urban area as city-only evidence.

Sources and further reading

• OLL / ANIL — rental statistics and geographic coverage
• Lifovra — How it works