Glossary · Lifestyle and budget

Housing percentile

Where in the local rent distribution your housing budget puts you — 25th = budget, 50th = median, 70th = comfortable, 90th = top-tier.

Housing percentile is the rent bracket each lifestyle tier targets within a specific city. The 25th percentile is the bottom quarter — shared housing, peripheral neighborhoods, smaller units. The 50th is the local median rent. The 70th puts you in better neighborhoods with more amenities. The 90th is the top 10% — luxury buildings, prime addresses, fully-furnished.

Why percentile rather than a flat budget? Because rent distributions vary by city. The 50th-percentile rent in Lisbon is ~€1,200 while in Zurich it's ~CHF 2,800. The lifestyle multiplier scales naturally — you're always targeting 'the median apartment in this city', whatever that number happens to be.

Personal housing strategy can override the model. If you're willing to commute, accept smaller space, or live in a less central area than the percentile suggests, you can effectively buy a tier without paying for it. Mundevo's number is the salary you'd need at the published percentile, not the minimum salary that's technically livable.

Where Mundevo uses this

Methodology — /methodology

Related terms

Rent index

Median asking rent for a one-bedroom apartment in a central neighborhood, normalized so NYC = 100.

Lifestyle tier

Mundevo's four-step scale (frugal / balanced / comfortable / premium) for how much you spend relative to the median resident.

Cost-of-living index

A single number that scores how expensive a city is, normalized so New York City = 100.

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