The housing rental market in the frontline regions of Ukraine is currently experiencing a critical situation. According to military personnel, the cost of renting apartments in cities located near the front line often exceeds prices in Kyiv or Lviv.
This is reported by Finway
Housing Shortage and Market Speculation
As realtor Oleksandr Boyko explains, the rapid price increase is due to a combination of several factors, the main one being a severe housing shortage. Due to hostilities in the frontline areas, up to 25% of the housing stock has been lost or damaged. This has significantly narrowed the selection of apartments suitable for rent.
Demand for rentals has increased several times primarily due to military rotations, the relocation of families from dangerous settlements, and the arrival of volunteers. As a result, the market has turned into a sort of “auction.” Property owners are taking advantage of the situation, raising rental rates by 30–50%. Some of them refuse to enter into contracts with military personnel, citing “risk of destruction” or other stereotypes that border on discrimination, further limiting supply.
“Property owners are actively speculating, inflating rates by 30–50% due to a lack of alternatives, and some of them directly avoid deals with military personnel, citing ‘fears of destruction’ or stereotypes that border on discrimination, which further narrows the supply,” says the expert.
The absence of clear regulatory mechanisms, such as price caps or mandatory monitoring, allows the market to remain in a state of chaos. In peacetime, competition partially balanced the situation, but this is not working now.
Possible Solutions to the Problem
Oleksandr Boyko believes that to overcome the crisis, the government should implement temporary price controls in frontline zones, for example, by setting a maximum rental fee of no more than 1.5 times the minimum wage for an apartment. At the same time, it is necessary to expand and simplify the mechanisms for providing subsidies to military personnel and internally displaced persons, which already partially exist.
Among additional initiatives, the expert suggests involving local communities in creating cooperative funds for temporary housing with the support of volunteers, as well as encouraging businesses to invest in modular housing or collaborate with the Ministry of Defense to organize “corporate” rentals.
The government has already taken certain measures: in March 2025, the Ministry of Defense provided for compensation for housing rentals, but these only apply to officers and contract soldiers who are not in combat zones. The amount of compensation, for example, in Kyiv is 4,560 UAH, in regional centers — 3,420 UAH, and in other cities — 2,280 UAH. However, these amounts significantly lag behind actual rental prices.
Military serviceman Ihor Lutsenko reminded about the existence of a legislative framework that allows addressing the accommodation issue for military personnel:
“In fact, the legislative framework for provision exists; it’s just that no one wants to use it. The law ‘On the Legal Regime of Martial Law’ explicitly provides for something like housing obligations. All citizens of Ukraine can be required to accommodate military personnel, police officers, and refugees. This law, if applied, could solve the accommodation problem once and for all,” says military serviceman Ihor Lutsenko.
The current situation requires government intervention: tariff control, expansion of compensation programs, and the creation of affordable housing mechanisms for military personnel. Without such steps, rentals in frontline cities will remain unaffordable, and housing for defenders will be hard to come by.