Cost of living in Heraklion for students in 2026: a real budget

The cost of living in Heraklion for a student living alone comes to roughly €1,265 to €1,391 a month if you go by Numbeo: €827.30 of everyday costs plus a one-bedroom rent of €437.33 outside the centre or €563.78 in it. Our own line-by-line example below comes to €888.05 before full groceries and a phone plan. Every figure here has a date and a source, because prices in the city have been moving fast.

Last checked: 28 September 2026.

How much is rent in Heraklion?

Rent is the biggest line in any student budget here, and the sources do not agree exactly, because they measure different things. Numbeo is crowd-sourced. Erasmus Play averages the listings on its own platform. Argophilia reports a price per square metre from Spitogatos Insights.

Source (date)	What it measures	Monthly rent
Numbeo (28 Aug 2026)	One-bedroom, city centre	€563.78
Numbeo (28 Aug 2026)	One-bedroom, outside the centre	€437.33
Erasmus Play (16 Feb 2026)	Shared room	€250
Erasmus Play (16 Feb 2026)	Room	€500
Erasmus Play (16 Feb 2026)	Studio	€661
Erasmus Play (16 Feb 2026)	Apartment	€1,226

Argophilia’s figure, from 26 July 2026, is €12.0 per square metre, up 12% on a year earlier. That rate turns into rough rents like these:

• 25 m² studio: 25 × €12.0 = €300
• 45 m² one-bedroom: 45 × €12.0 = €540
• 55 m² two-bedroom: 55 × €12.0 = €660

Treat these as a sense of scale rather than a quote. A 12% rise in a year is the most important number on this page: if you are budgeting from an older blog post or a friend’s rent from two years ago, add to it.

Bills, broadband and the money you pay before you move in

The University of Crete’s Erasmus page says it plainly: rent usually excludes electricity, water and phone, and furnished flats usually come without bed linen or towels. So a rent figure on its own is not what the flat costs.

Numbeo gives basic utilities at €172.79 a month and broadband at €34.13. The utilities figure is for an 85 m² flat, which is far bigger than a student studio, so read it as a rough marker rather than what you will pay.

Then there is the money due before your first night. The same UoC page says to expect one month’s rent upfront plus a deposit of the same amount. ESN UoC adds that renting through an agency often means three rents upfront: two to the landlord and one to the agency. Using Numbeo’s outside-centre rent:

• Direct from a landlord: 2 × €437.33 = €874.66
• Through an agency: 3 × €437.33 = €1,311.99

That gap is worth knowing before you sign anything. Our guide to renting in Heraklion as an Erasmus student covers the AFM tax number and paying rent by bank transfer.

Food and coffee

Numbeo’s prices from 28 August 2026, for the things students buy most often:

Item	Price
Meal at an inexpensive restaurant	€13.00
Cappuccino	€3.53
Milk, 1 litre	€1.56
Bread, 500 g	€1.31
Eggs, 12	€3.99

Those few prices do not add up to a full monthly grocery bill, and we will not guess one. Its broader estimate of a single person’s monthly costs excluding rent is €827.30, which is the better number to use if you want a cautious total.

Getting around: the bus pass

City buses are run by Astiko KTEL Heraklion. From its fares page:

• Single ticket, zone A (within 5 km): €1.30 if bought before boarding, €2.30 on board
• Single ticket, zone B (beyond 5 km): €1.80 before boarding, €2.80 on board
• Student single: €0.80 in zone A, €1.00 in zone B
• 30-day card: €70, or €45 for students

The catch: Astiko does not publish whether Erasmus or other foreign students qualify for student fares. Ask Astiko or ESN before you put €45 in your budget. Either way, buy before boarding; paying on board costs €1.00 more each trip. Our guide to getting to campus by bus goes through the lines for UoC, PAGNI, FORTH and HMU.

An example monthly budget, with the arithmetic

This is one student living alone, renting outside the centre at Numbeo’s average, eating out twice a week and having three coffees a week. The habits are our assumption; every price comes from the sources above.

Line	Working	Monthly
Rent, one-bedroom outside the centre	Numbeo	€437.33
Basic utilities	Numbeo (85 m² flat)	€172.79
Broadband	Numbeo	€34.13
30-day bus card	Full fare	€70.00
Meals out	8 × €13.00	€104.00
Cappuccinos	12 × €3.53	€42.36
Milk, bread and eggs	4 weeks × (€1.56 + €1.31 + €3.99) = 4 × €6.86	€27.44
Total		€888.05

What this leaves out: most of your groceries, a phone plan, toiletries and nights out, because we have no sourced figure for them. Numbeo’s own estimate is higher: its €827.30 plus €437.33 rent comes to €1,264.63; with a centre rent of €563.78 it is €1,391.08. If you want a cautious plan, use Numbeo’s total; our build-up is the floor, not the budget.

If you get the student bus card, take €25 off (€70 minus €45). Upfront, add the move-in money from the section above.

Where our rents sit, with bills included

Our thirteen homes run from €400 to €1,200 a month, and bills are included, with the detail on each home’s page. Each home also has a small monthly building cost of €10 to €30, written on its page. There is no agency fee, and each flat comes fully furnished, including bed linen, pillows, blankets and kitchenware. Bed linen is one of the things the UoC page says furnished flats usually lack. Three homes that fit a tight budget:

• The top-floor studio: 25 m², €400 a month plus €30 building cost, at Agathangelou Papadaki 2 in Estavromenos, a 4-minute walk from the HMU gate.
• The ground-floor studio: 25 m², €420 a month plus €15 building cost, on Profiti Ilia street, a 5-minute walk from the HMU gate.
• The two-bedroom with the long balcony: 55 m², €800 a month, or €400 each split with a friend, plus €30 building cost.

Rerun the example budget with the top-floor studio. The rent, utilities and broadband lines (€437.33 + €172.79 + €34.13 = €644.25) become €400 rent plus the €30 building cost, and the building has Wi-Fi:

€888.05 minus €644.25 plus €430 = €673.80 a month.

Electricity is included up to a monthly limit, which the home’s page states; check it against how you live.

To be fair to the other side of the comparison: Numbeo’s utilities figure is for a much bigger flat than a studio, so the real saving against a small flat paying its own bills will be smaller than that sum suggests. And per square metre, €400 for 25 m² is €16, above Argophilia’s €12.0 average. What you are paying for is not having a separate utilities and broadband bill, and no agency’s cut. If a shared room at Erasmus Play’s €250 average suits you, that is cheaper than anything we have.

Location matters too. Both our buildings are near HMU. If your lectures or lab are at Voutes (UoC, PAGNI or FORTH), a place near Voutes may suit you better than ours, and the bus fare belongs in your budget either way. Our guide to student accommodation near HMU covers the area around our buildings.

Is the cost of living in Heraklion high for students?

For a student, the pressure is rent. Argophilia’s 12% rise in a year is the clearest sign, and Erasmus Play’s studio average of €661 is higher than Numbeo’s €437.33 for a one-bedroom outside the centre. The two measure different things, so plan on the range rather than the lower figure. Day to day, a €3.53 cappuccino and a €13.00 cheap meal are the numbers to watch; they add up faster than bread and eggs.

The cheapest routes are the plain ones: share, rent directly from an owner rather than an agency, and check whether bills are included before you compare two rents.

Next step

We run both buildings ourselves; you can read who we are. If one of our homes fits your budget, send us a request with your dates. You get a written contract in English and a video walk-through before you commit, and we take no payment online.